


A Twist of Fate

by perfectdagger (sincerelyste)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bad Luck, Exaggerated description of sudden state of drunkenness and silly incidents, Fate & Destiny, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Inaccurate tarot reading and astrological/mystic facts, Just My Luck AU, Light Angst, Luck Twist, M/M, Minor Injuries, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-14 03:59:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 59,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17501129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelyste/pseuds/perfectdagger
Summary: “Lucky you.” There was a mocking tone in Harry’s voice and Louis couldn’t help but roll his eyes, remembering the whole luck and fate talk he had with his friends earlier in the night.“Sometimes,” he replied, using more charm than necessary as he placed the bottle on the railing and stepped closer to Harry, actually startling the man as he was drinking from his own water. Louis wanted to laugh as Harry dried the water that had dripped on his chin with the back of his hand, but he figured that would ruin the mood he was trying to set. “But I guess I’d be much luckier tonight if I kissed you.”“Luck was never on my side, but I guess tonight you could help me change it,” Harry said back, in such low and flirty way Louis almost felt weak at the knees, but held himself by stepping even closer to Harry, breaking the distance between them.Or a Just My Luck Au in which Louis, who apparently is the luckiest man in the world according to his friends, might have his fate and luck twisted when he crosses path with a handsome and mysterious bloke dressed up as Zorro at Syco Entertainment Press Corp’s Halloween party.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [louishelby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/louishelby/gifts).



> Hello!
> 
> So here I am with another fic, this time inspired by one of my favorite movies! I had so much fun writing this and hope you all will have too as you read it!
> 
> This was initially a Secret Santa gift for my loveliest @[supportivehsubands](http://supportivehusbands.tumblr.com), so this goes out for you Ka! <3 Can't leave the whole br gc out of this, who were so excited about this, being the McFly fans that we are! Thanks for the support, gurls! 
> 
> I'm also dedicating this to my dear friend Lils as her farewell gift from perfectdagger and for her birthday too <3
> 
> And as always, thanks to my SsS squad! Syn for listening to and helping me with my ideas and Sammie for fixing my dumb mistakes! (Any mistakes from chapter 5/6/7 are my own)
> 
> Here's a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/stephvicente/playlist/071Dtrjch8vEoGb52LmZUH?si=jiFhqSxJSq63NBoNWYymBg) with all luck-related songs I could find haha
> 
> Enjoy it! xx

****“I hate office parties,” Niall complained beside Louis just as they set foot inside the penthouse.

“You say that every time, Horan, and yet, every time you come along with us.” Liam was walking alongside them, Zayn’s hand in his.

“That’s ‘cause we have to come otherwise Simon will kick our arses,” Niall sighed tiredly, “but there’s always free booze and also ‘cause, maybe, who knows, this will finally be my chance to score some.” He tried to open a confident smile, wiggling his eyebrows.

The loud music surrounded them as they stepped further into the packed living room of Simon Cowell, their Editor in Chief, also owner of Syco Entertainment Press Corp.

Every festive holiday was always an excuse for Simon to throw a party for his employees, seeking to create more inter-relationships between the different sectors of his company, but also as an opportunity to promote his own products – any press is always good press, after all, and if portraying the company as a fun environment could get them more sponsors, buyers and viewers, then of course almost every month there’d be a party hosted by the man himself at his own huge and millionaire penthouse in London.

“That’s why you decided to come to the Halloween party this year dressed up as a Leprechaun? Trying to bring some luck from the motherland to you, Nialler?” Louis joked, taking a look at the Irish lad and his head-to-toe green costume.

“Ha ha,” Niall fake laughed, rolling his eyes at him. “I’m sorry not everyone’s a jammy bastard like you. Some have to make do with what they have, and apparently the luck of the Irish doesn’t follow me, so yeah, trying to turn my chances around can’t hurt.”

Louis slapped Niall on the head, knocking his green hat off. “I don’t understand why you’re so hung up on this luck thing, seriously. I’m not a jammy bastard, things just work in my favour sometimes.”

Niall puffed as he bent down to get his hat in hand again, almost tripping over his own feet. Liam helped him steady himself before he could fall face first on the floor.

“Sometimes?” Liam snorted, pushing his round glasses against his face to put them in place after fixing Niall’s hat on his head again. “More like every damn time, Tommo.”

“If you’d only listen to what my tarot cards have told you before, you’d believe that it’s actually fate that you have luck on your side.” Zayn stepped away from Liam, coming closer to Louis as he put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a pointed look.

“Your cards are fake, for fuck’s sake, Malik. You’re not a real fortune teller. Mysterious Z is a sham, fuck off.” Louis slapped Zayn’s hand away, shaking his head, not quite believing Zayn had dressed himself almost like Aladdin.

“Li believed in them when he got the Magician’s card, deciding then to come dressed as Harry Potter, saying it was a sign of fate,” Zayn snickered, taking his boyfriend’s hand in his again, pulling him to keep walking.

“Liam’s a nerd. The tarot cards have nothing to do with his costume, and he probably only said you and your fortune telling skills were on point to get laid tonight.” Louis sighed heavily, following his friends through the people standing at Simon’s house, giving his coworkers some nods and hand waves as greetings.

[Daft Punk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I) was playing in the background and Louis could already see some people loosening themselves on a makeshift dance floor in the middle of the room, drinks in hand and chatting away.

“Actually, I take Halloween parties very seriously, as opposed to you, who came with the bleakest and most unoriginal costume.” Liam made way for them to head towards the bar.

Louis opened his mouth in disbelief. “Oi! It’s thematic! Head of the sports column, dressed as a footie player, hello?” Louis stopped on his tracks putting both hands on his hips, looking down at his own costume, proud to be sporting his entire personalised Doncaster Rovers kit.

Zayn approached the bar, leaning his back against the counter. “I’m the web designer and you don’t see me dressed as a computer, or a pen.”

“I could’ve come dressed maybe as Elvis or any other singer or even as a guitar meself,” Niall pointed out, checking the rows of beers and drinks behind the bar, “but the music blogger is more creative than that, thanks.” He winked at Louis, before turning completely to the bar and calling the bartender’s attention.

“You’re all jealous, that’s what.” Louis shook his head, clicking his tongue as he got closer to the counter.

“Oh, yeah, you bet your arse I am.” Zayn elbowed Louis. “You always get the best souvenirs from the people you work with. Again, one lucky duck.”

“That’s networking, Malik.”

“That’s fate working its way towards you. The tarot cards don’t lie, I’m afraid.” Zayn took the deck from inside his trousers pocket. “You had four very interesting cards, Louis. I might not be a tarot expert, but from what I know, it’s really not a coincidence at all. Don’t be a complete skeptic, will ya?” He displayed again the cards Louis had faced earlier, making him recall Zayn’s reading.

Louis turned sideways to face him better. “What? Should I be concerned then that my oh-so-good-luck might change tonight?”

Louis was never one to actually believe in what his friends were teasing him about. Yeah, he could admit that life has been very kind and generous to him for almost twenty seven years, that things always seemed to fall right into place for him, that he has never had a bad day, that chances popped up left and right and that every opportunity he got always worked in his favour. One might say that it was luck indeed, but for Louis it was just that his life was good and he made every right decision to get where he was.

Finding an internship right after finishing his Journalism degree, and that being exactly at one of Britain’s biggest means of communication channels was just a result of his hard work and his impeccable marks and grades at Uni. Not that Simon Cowell himself seeking Louis out should be any indication that Louis was special or anything. It was simply the outcome of everything he had ever done, as well as his position as head of a whole segment in the monthly magazine and the online column of Syco Entertainment only in two years working at the enterprise. Pure dedication and being a trustworthy employee, that was all.

But everyone around Louis kept pointing out that he not only had a blessed life at work. It was every aspect of his life, be it finding one of the best spots in London to live after moving from Doncaster, or always dating high-profile and well connected people (sometimes even sneaking out with a few of the football players he got to interview for his monthly articles. They were very charmed by him – and his arse, what could he say?).

Despite what people thought, Louis still didn’t see it as they did. It wasn’t luck or fate, or anything. He didn’t believe in any of that mystic bullshit. Whenever his three best friends tried to throw him some astrology nonsense, he’d always dismiss it, because really, what did it even matter what positions the stars were in the sky when he was born and how that would dictate how his days were supposed to go for the rest of his life?

He’d never let Niall read him his birth chart, because that was completely ridiculous, even though Niall kept saying that all the answers for Louis’ lucky streak in life was there. Zayn had made a point that those were actually very accurate, since he had never seen a chart so bad as Niall’s, and that would explain the poor choices the lad had made in his life (Louis only deemed it was really, really poor timing sometimes, for instance when the Irish lad had bleached his hair once more, using a bad product that made him almost bald, having to shave his hair and let it grow all dark again – which was actually for the best, he’d looked better that way than with the faded blond he insisted on having for years).

So, when he couldn’t escape Zayn and his tarot cards before leaving his flat to come to the party that night, the only thing left was to play along, even though nothing those cards said meant a thing to him.

After shuffling the deck, Zayn had pulled four cards for him. The first one he flipped was of a Wheel of Fortune, the second one had a drawing of a heart with three daggers (Zayn said it was The Three Swords, but whatever), the third one was of the Moon, and the last one had two shooting stars crossing each other labeled as Fate.

Zayn’s knowledge of tarot reading was the same he had of footie rules, which was equal to zero, but he insisted that there was a bigger meaning to those cards than Louis only insinuating they had prepared the cards beforehand to mess with him.

The Wheel of Fortune meant that luck had always been part of Louis’ life (which, yeah, right), but presenting upside down, it meant the wheel was spinning back, Louis’ luck and fortune could take a twist, for worst. The Three Swords upright meant that Louis was in for intense pain and possible heartbreak, possibly caused by unexpected events (that might or might not be related to the wheel spinning back, according to Zayn). The Moon card could mean that there’d be times of illusion and uncertainty in Louis’ life. And lastly, the Fate card might indicate that along with everything else, there was something about to cross Louis’ life that would turn it completely around.

If his friends had never been so intent on being envious of Louis’ apparent luck, he might’ve believed that he was indeed in for a change in his life, but knowing them, he was even more certain that Zayn had set all those cards to fuck him up. So of course he didn’t pay Zayn and neither those damn cards any mind and all that talk about luck and fate, he’d only leave it for banter between him and his friends.

“It could be tonight, it could be in a week, in a month, who knows.” Zayn shrugged, receiving a pint from Liam by his side.

“Just admit it, Malik, you know nothing about tarot and your wannabe Aladdin costume is just so you and Liam can finally live up to some weird sex fantasy.”

“Hey!” Liam protested, half-way through handing Louis a pint for him too. “Don’t take his readings for granted just because for once in your life things apparently aren’t going to be on your side. Just for that, I’ll keep this to myself.” He took a gulp from the beer, linking his arm with Zayn, dragging him away from Louis.

“As if I can’t get meself a better drink than that Heineken, Payno,” Louis laughed and turned around to face the bar, ready to order himself a nice Smirnoff Ice when the bartender appeared right in front of him, sliding a glass of Vodka Martini towards him. If Louis noticed the bartender winking at him, he couldn’t deny he sent him back a mischievous smile, taking the drink in his hand and drinking from it very slowly, almost making a show of it. The bartender shook his head, reluctantly taking his attention from Louis to talk to someone who had called him.

“You’re unbelievable, Tommo.” Niall cackled beside him, placing his pint on the counter. “Wish I could be as effortless as you trying to pull someone. And you say it isn’t luck.”

Louis laughed as he ate an olive from his glass, listening to the sound of [Maroon 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazL49c9G2w) playing around them. “‘S actually charm, Horan. You gotta work on that. No better time and place than here and now.” He gestured towards the crowd in front of them.

“Mate, I might’ve already tried to flirt with every man and woman in this office, I stand no chance with anyone here anymore. It’s a curse. When I’m doing fine at work, love’s totally not on my side.”

“That’s the problem, Nialler. Why focus on the people you already know? I see some unfamiliar faces here tonight.” Louis took another sip from his Martini, carefully watching the people around the room.

Niall shook his head. “They’re all wearing costumes, Louis, how the fuck can you tell who’s from the office or not?”

Louis looked from one side to the other, inspecting everyone attending the party. Niall had a point, but the people at their office were very predictable and he could identify who was wearing which costume, specially the ones who were closer to them. He might not know everyone who worked at Syco, but he knew the peer groups and who they were friends with, so it was easy to identify who was possibly one of his coworkers or not.

At that moment, spotting a figure in the corner of the room, Louis was certain he had never seen that person before.

“How about that one? I’m sure I’d remember someone as tall and lean as that Zorro bloke.” He indicated with his glass in the direction of the man.

The lights weren’t so bright inside the expanse of Simon Cowell’s living room, but Louis could see the man, who was leaning against the glass door that led to the balcony outside, wearing all black – tight black jeans and a black see through button down – and all the uncanny accessories of the fictional vigilante: a black cape, mask, a hat with a Z stamped on it and also a sword. It was hard to actually see how the man looked like with the costume on, but just by giving him the once-over, Louis could tell that he was very sexy (specially with the tattoos peeking out from his almost transparent shirt), the face couldn’t completely betray the amazing body Louis was seeing.

It seemed the moment it took Louis to take the man in, he also noticed Louis back and for a second their eyes locked even from afar. Louis smiled at him, tilting his head a little bit and saluting him with his glass. The man opened a shy smile back at Louis, straightening his posture away from the glass door. Louis watched as he made a motion to take a step forward, but in one swift movement, suddenly the man was tripping and trying to catch his balance not to fall on the floor.

“I’m sure I’d also remember a person as clumsy as me,” Niall laughed beside him, making Louis remember that his friend had also been watching the Zorro-man. “I think I’ll pass him. Two losers could never work well together. Besides, he’s totally checking you out, not me, so, yeah.” He took his hat off for a moment, running his hand through his brown locks nervously before drinking from his pint again.

Louis continued to keep his eyes on the man who was now trying to compose himself. He had tried to balance himself by getting ahold of anything that had been closer to him – a tall lamp in the corner of the wall next to the glass door, which he almost knocked over with his sword in the process.

It was hilarious, to say the least, but also a little bit charming if Louis could admit. A guy, dressed up as Zorro, one of the fearless, bravest and smoothest characters of all times, being nothing but clumsy and a mess just by sharing eye-contact with Louis.

“I might try to give him some of this luck you all insist on me having, then. Sharing’s caring after all.” Louis shrugged, downing the rest of his drink.

“I’d wish you good luck, but you don’t need it at all. Well, I’ll find a corner to drown meself in alcohol alone, since not even the Leprechaun thing is helping me tonight.” Niall gestured to the bar, asking for another pint.

“Night’s still young, Ni, don’t put yourself down.” Louis playfully ruffled Niall’s hair, handing him his hat back. Niall fixed it on top of his head again and clapped Louis on the back before turning away with his beer bottle and leaving him alone.

It were times like those that made Louis feel bad for Niall, wishing there was something he could do to help his friend turn his life around and leave the self pity pit he sometimes found himself in. He knew, though, that Niall was not a downer despite it all. He had his bad days, but usually, he’d be the one to cheer everyone up, trying to look at the bright side of life. So, maybe after a few more beers he’d finally find something (or someone) to entertain himself with and soon Louis would spot him in the middle of the dance floor, dancing his worries away.

Louis left the thoughts of Niall behind as he focused on the man again, who was now better composed and seemed purposefully making his way towards him. Louis couldn’t contain himself from smiling as he turned to the bar again, calling the bartender’s attention and asking for not only another Vodka Martini, but two, which made the bartender a little disappointed by his look (he was cute, though, but not as promising as the man in all black coming into Louis’ direction).

When he turned around after the bartender prepared the drinks, Louis found the Zorro guy casually standing beside him. From up close, even with his face covered by the mask, Louis could see he was very handsome. As he smiled at Louis, he could see bright white teeth, the two front ones standing out cutely. He also had rosy plump lips, a soft stubble that covered a few parts of his chin, jaw and down on the upper lip (Louis reckoned the guy could be wearing a mustache if he wanted to really go full Zorro mode, but considering the whole picture, he’s glad he didn’t, it wouldn’t suit him so well), a mole just by the left side of his jaw, a pointy but delicate nose, a shy but deep dimple popping out, and even if the mask was making it hard for Louis to see, his eyes seemed to be of a light color that shone with the dim light coming from the bar.

Sending back the smile, Louis noticed that the man had actually come all the way there because of him. He should better not waste this opportunity, then. He was ready to make his move, slowly sliding one of the Vodka Martini glasses towards him.

“Hi,” Louis said in a low but assertive and flirty voice.

The man nervously moved his hand on the counter, maybe going for the drink, or maybe for something else, Louis couldn’t tell, but what he could see was that Zorro didn’t know what he was doing with them, since he bumped his hand on the glass, knocking it over and spilling all the liquid over the top of the counter.

“Oops,” he let out and Louis didn’t know if he should be mad at the other guy for ruining his plan of casually offering him a drink or turned on because the sound that left the man’s mouth was a deep one Louis wasn’t expecting, or even endeared by how shy and apologetic he sounded.

Louis laughed slightly. “‘S alright,” he shook his head, running his hand through his fringe. If he wasn’t going to get the man by one drink, he could totally throw him some of his charm. “I can always get another one.”

“I’m sorry, I’m always a disaster,” the man apologised, “but, hm, isn’t that other one yours too?” He frowned from behind the mask, pointing to the second Martini glass.

“I meant I could always get another one _for you_.” Louis didn’t feel bad for using that cheeky flirty line and if he was being honest, he’d say that it worked, since it made Zorro-guy blush a little.

“Oh.” Zorro seemed actually surprised by that, but the way he licked his lips surely indicated that he didn’t find a problem in it at all. “I feel flattered,” he chuckled lightly, “but you shouldn’t bother with getting me a drink.”

Louis was confused for a second by it, and if the small snort he heard from behind him coming from the bartender that had come to clean the spilled drink was anything to go by, that had really been an unexpected response. Just a moment ago the bloke had seemed interested in him, why would he turn Louis’ offer down? Alright, fair enough, not everybody was into drinking, but it kinda sounded rude the way he declined it.

“No?” Louis asked, not teasingly, but really intrigued. “My bad then.”

Zorro might’ve seen Louis’ dejected expression because he quickly moved closer to Louis, carefully placing a hand over his wrist.

“I mean, I’m completely flattered,” he started, “honoured even that such gorgeous lad wanted to order drinks for me,” he gave Louis a sincere smile, “but knowing myself, alcohol’s not my best friend. I’d really like to talk to you, but it’s better if there’s no booze involved.” He winked and squeezed Louis’ wrist.

Louis let out a sigh of relief, which was accompanied by a sigh of annoyance from the bartender that had just finished drying the counter (if he was going to be a prick over Louis flirting with another bloke, his cuteness wasn’t worth any of Louis’ attention at all. There was already someone else who was).

“What harm could one simple glass of vodka do to you?”

Zorro shook his head, his big black hat bunching slightly. “Oh, a lot. I’m a very, very, veeery light weight.”

“With a body like that, I’d never say so.” Louis raised an eyebrow at him cheekily, reaching out for his own forgotten glass of Martini, taking a slow sip from it.

That actually earned him a snort from Zorro-man. “People tell me that, but this,” he gestured to himself, “didn’t come with much alcohol resistance, or any disaster insurance actually, I’m afraid.”

“Bummer.” Louis placed the glass on the counter, licking his lips. “I was really looking forward to sharing a drink with you…” He gave the other man the cue, fishing for his name, since calling him Zorro for fucking forever if he intended to move forward to knowing him wouldn’t do.

“Harry,” he answered, smiling widely at Louis. “And no worries, I could just sit here and watch you drink from yours. It’s quite the view…” he indicated his head to Louis, using his own technique back on him.

“Louis.” He extended his hand to Harry to greet him properly.

Harry’s grasp on his was a firm one as they shook their hands and Louis could feel how soft those long fingers were, also noticing the amount of rings he had on almost all of them.

“But that would be completely rude of meself,” Louis continued as they let go of their hold and reached for his glass again, drinking from it, but making sure to do it in the flirtiest way possible. “What’s the fun in drinking alone? I’m certain you didn’t leave your lone spot on the corner to come here just watch me. You could’ve kept watching me from afar,” he joked, winking at Harry.

“The view from here is much better,” Harry said in a very serious tone, his eyes locked on Louis’.

Fuck, that man also knew how to flirt and Louis was very well interested in that.

“I’m glad.” Louis smiled through the glass, licking his upper lip before he caught the toothpick with the olive stuck in it from inside the glass, swirling his tongue around it before he ate it, with a wicked smile on his lips. “But if you hadn’t come here, I’d have gone to you. Such a pity for you to be standing on your own at a party like this.”

That made Harry blush even more.

“I’m not alone. I was waiting for my sister,” Harry clarified. “She said she was going to the loo and talk to her boss later. She was supposed to have come back by now, but...” Harry looked around himself, probably trying to check if his sister was around somewhere else. He shrugged when he looked back at Louis.

“Sister?” Louis was curious, because then it really meant that Harry didn’t work at Syco (which he obviously would’ve known by now) and had probably come as someone’s guest.

“Yeah, Gemma, she works for the magazine.”

It seemed Harry didn’t know Louis was also an employee, not sure that Louis actually knew who his sister was.

But Louis did. Gemma was from the fashion section of the magazine and they often talked to each other. Louis only never knew that this Harry was her brother. She never really mentioned family when they chatted during a few meetings or offices hangouts.

“Oh, I know her. Gemma Styles, right?” Harry nodded, confirming. “I work for the sports column,” Louis informed.

“That’s why the footie costume?” Harry questioned in delight, taking a long look at Louis.

“If you even think about mocking my outfit, I’ll throw this drink on you.” Louis rolled his eyes, but playfully. “But yeah, basically.” He shrugged, unapologetically.

“It fits you,” Harry simply said, licking his lips one more time and Louis only imagined if what was going on through Harry’s mind was how that kit would look so much better on the floor, in a place where Harry would be taking Louis’ cock in those plump lips.

“Yours isn’t bad either,” Louis gestured to Harry’s outfit, “kinda mysterious with the whole Zorro vibe, I dig it.” Louis would also very much dig taking it off from Harry to know how many more tattoos the guy had sprawled all over his skin, because the ones he was spotting through his almost transparent shirt was actually driving him mad.

“It’s impractical,” Harry laughed, “I’ve almost tripped over the cape, hit myself in the eye with the sword… I never learn how to make things easier for myself.”

Louis downed the rest of his drink before he spoke again. “That’s quite the hassle just for a Halloween party.”

“Gemma insisted I’d come and that was the only costume she could find last minute, so.” He shrugged once again, very nonchalantly.

Louis had a feeling Harry didn’t want to be there, but at that moment, he was very happy that the man was and if he could make his time worth it and show him a good time, then Louis could count that as a win, for both of them, for the night.

“But then, she’s dragged you along and ditched you, what an awful sister,” Louis joked. “Glad you found me then. No more boringly standing alone in the corner, how about that?” He wiggled his eyebrows at Harry.

“That sounds like a better party,” Harry agreed, nodding and letting out a small shy chuckle.

Seeing Harry cheerful about his company made Louis braver to actually move them from this neverending small talk by the bar to have a bit of more fun. “Fancy some dancing?” He asked, tilting his head to the dance floor.

[Madonna](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-WvFGVChA) was playing now as people were still letting themselves loose, way past the sober dancing stage.

“I don’t know what’d be worse, you seeing me drunk or dancing.” Harry shook his head in embarrassment.

“I’d take one or the other any time, if you’d only give me the chance,” Louis proposed, with no pretence, going straight to the point.

Harry took a deep breath, apparently considering his options. He didn’t take his eyes off Louis as he seemed to make up his mind, smiling at him again.

“If I fall on my arse there, be aware it’s your fault.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t.” Louis smiled back, feeling victorious. “Do you mind if I take one more drink before we go?”

“No at all. Suit yourself.” Harry gestured towards the bar, as if giving Louis the leeway to choose from the variety of drinks from behind the counter.

Louis called the bartender, which fortunately wasn’t the same one that had been trying to flirt with him. He ordered a shot of tequila, wasting no time to drink from the small glass in one go.

When he placed the glass down on the counter again, he glanced at Harry to see the man attentively watching him. And if he saw him gulping dryly and quickly averting his eyes so as not to meet Louis’, then Louis had the confirmation that Harry probably wasn’t lying when he said he could just watch him take drink after drink (he would probably get off on Louis getting drunk, and that was something dangerous for Louis to imagine with so much alcohol in his system at that moment).

They headed to the dance floor then, [Mick Jagger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX-KPI9G6iM)’s voice helping people sway around each other cheerfully.

As the songs kept playing, Louis and Harry found a rhythm between themselves, their bodies actually fitting together, almost in sync, sometimes dancing more to themselves, but others getting inside each other’s personal space, touching each other, hands roaming over the other man’s arms or waist.

The flawed dancing Harry had claimed never came. The few occasional times he stepped on somebody else’s feet or elbowed someone on the back distractedly, or that his sword attached to his belt on his hip had tangled up with someone’s costume… it hadn’t been that bad. He hadn’t tripped over his own feet or hurt Louis in the process, so they were having a good time. A very good time, if Louis was honest with himself, since being that close to Harry was making him hot, not only by the dancing but by how charming and attractive Harry was presenting himself. When Harry had gotten himself behind Louis, his chest against Louis’ back, Louis couldn’t help but lean back a bit closer, his bum pressing against Harry’s crotch, confirming that he wasn’t the only one enjoying it. Harry seemed very happy (and hard) with Louis’ presence and if Louis would only turn around, he could meet Harry’s lips and have a taste of what he had been wanting since he laid his eyes on Harry that night.

Harry’s hot breath against Louis’ neck was a wake up call for him, because as much as Louis wanted to snog (and more) the hell out of Harry, he knew that he wouldn’t want to do it in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by his coworkers. Despite him being known to be the flirty guy around the office, he did take his hook ups very seriously and privately. On the occasions he had actually gone out with someone from Syco, people had only found out after it didn’t work out some weeks later. So, he wasn’t gonna start it now, letting everyone see him kissing someone only to gossip about it later. Let alone, gossip about who the mysterious bloke Louis had been with was (moreover, he didn’t need Niall, Zayn or Liam pestering him about it and he had to actually thank whatever God it was that they hadn’t been anywhere near them the whole night). So he reckoned if he really wanted to go further with Harry, that was the time to move away from the dance floor and find somewhere else to get some more privacy.

The way Harry’s hands had clung to Louis’ jersey around his waist and the slight brush of his lips on the back of Louis’ neck near his ear sent electric waves through Louis’ body (and straight to his cock) and he immediately turned around, facing Harry and trying to control the way his heart was beating so fast.

“Wanna get out of here?” Louis asked, intently.

He saw Harry gulping dryly and nodding without much thinking over the question.

That made Louis smile widely at him, turning him on even more than he already was. He pulled Harry by the hand then, dragging him away from the middle of the packed living room with [Kylie Minogue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQ5gOXtMZg)’s voice filling the speakers.

He headed back to the bar, only briefly to get a pint for him and some water for Harry. He needed something to cool down otherwise he wasn’t sure he would be responsible for his next actions in front of everyone.

“Aren’t you worried about being smashed? Don’t you still have to go to work tomorrow?” Harry asked, a bit of concern in his voice as Louis handed him the bottle of water and led him through the glass door onto the balcony.

The chill of the last night of October was a bit of refreshment, making Louis feel even better about himself. Despite how crowded the inside of the penthouse was, there were very few people outside and Louis was glad for that as he walked towards one of the far ends of the balcony where nobody would actually pay attention to them.

“I feel like we are quite the opposite,” Louis laughed as he leaned against the rail of the balcony and took a long gulp from his beer, “even though I’m a tad more compact than you, incredibly, I’m very much alcohol resistant. Never had a bad hangover in my life.”

“Lucky you.” There was a mocking tone in Harry’s voice and Louis couldn’t help but roll his eyes, remembering the whole luck and fate talk he had with his friends earlier in the night.

The faint sound of [The Who](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-K7aUQ3Rpc) was coming from the inside, reminding Louis why they hadn’t stayed there dancing the night away. Louis had better plans he intended to act on right at that moment.

“Sometimes,” he replied, using more charm than necessary as he placed the bottle on the railing and stepped closer to Harry, actually startling the man as he was drinking from his own water. Louis wanted to laugh as Harry dried the water that had dripped on his chin with the back of his hand, but he figured that would ruin the mood he was trying to set. “But I guess I’d be much luckier tonight if I kissed you.”

It was such a cheesy line, one he would never guess he’d hear himself saying, specially involving the word “luck”, but that felt appropriate for the moment for some reason and the way he had gotten Harry to properly discard his water bottle on the railing too and pay completely attention to Louis was totally worth it.

“Luck was never on my side, but I guess you could help me change it tonight,” Harry said back, in such low and flirty way Louis almost felt weak at the knees, but held himself by stepping even closer to Harry, breaking the distance between them.

He led his hand to Harry’s hat, pulling it away from the man’s head in a way to make it easier for him to lean closer. Harry understood what he was doing and didn’t waste time to finally have their mouths pressed together.

There was a blow of intense wind as they touched each other’s lips and Louis was never one to believe there was such magical moments, but that truly felt like it.

Harry led his hand to cup Louis’ jaw, and Louis let his hat fall on the floor, bringing his hand to tangle on the hair on the back of Harry’s neck, only then realising he had his hair secured in a bun.

That didn’t disencourage him, though. He moved his hand down Harry’s back, then to his arm, to his waist, squeezing him tightly as he asked permission to deepen the kiss, opening his mouth a bit to run his tongue over Harry’s lips. Harry let him in and if the simple brush of their lips had felt like Louis’ entire world had already turned upside down, then to have their tongues slowly seeking each other, finding a perfect rhythm Louis had never had with anyone he had ever kissed, it was like Louis was seeing stars behind his closed eyelids.

Every swift swap of their tongues was making Louis lose his senses completely. He had never felt that way before kissing anybody else and it only confirmed how much he had been attracted to Harry, how right he was that there was something different about him, that he actually liked him even for the short time they had known each other.

It was surreal for Louis and for a moment, he felt a twist inside himself, his heart thudding unrhythmically as if it was going to leap out of his chest and air running low inside his lungs.

Harry’s touch was suffocating in a good way, and right in every single place he had Louis against his body and it pained him that he wanted to break the kiss. But he needed to come up for air, he needed to stop himself from feeling like he was spinning around, his head heavy from how overwhelmed he was feeling.

[Lana Del Rey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzYJYFaCI7s) seemed to be singing right into his ears even though the song was playing far away from them, making him finally snap out of the moment and make a move.

“That was…” Louis started to say but as soon as he did, he felt like his stomach had curled up around itself and the dizziness he was feeling became more intense. He had never felt like that, it was almost as if he was going to puke. He put a distance between him and Harry, being able to take a better look at the man.

Harry’s thumb caressed Louis’ cheek softly, and the smile he had on was so enchanting Louis really, really felt like he was going to pass out. If he was going to die right there and then, at least he should be granted to seeing Harry’s face completely, so he reached his hand out to move Harry’s mask away, revealing the heaviness of his glinting green eyes that bored into Louis’ blue ones.

“The best kiss I’ve ever had.” Harry finished the sentence that had gotten lost in Louis’ throat, smiling so earnestly at him.

Louis wanted to laugh all of a sudden, he didn’t know why. Maybe it was how crazy the situation was, or because he did feel like everything else around him was spinning. He only managed to nod his head instead, but when he did, it was like all the blood had run straight up and the pain was almost unbearable for him to stand.

He closed his eyes, still feeling like the earth was moving under him and that was when he realised that all he was feeling wasn’t just the effects of Harry kissing him. He was actually feeling very sick and when that finally hit him, the feeling at the pit of his stomach came up to his throat and he had to hold himself from puking right at Harry – who must have noticed something was wrong when Louis didn’t look up at him again. He felt both of Harry’s hand hold him by the face, the coldness of his rings a contrast with how hot his skin was.

“Louis, are you alright?” His voice was soft and concerned and Louis could only shake his head in response, making it hurt a bit more. “Louis, did I do anything wrong?”

Harry might have realised that Louis was feeling unwell, but Louis couldn’t let him think that it had anything to do with the kiss. Louis wanted to scream that Harry was the one he had always been looking for, the one who had made him feel the best he has ever had, even if at that moment Louis had never felt so poorly in his whole life.

“That was amazing, that’s what I was gonna say,” Louis managed to speak, breathing in deeply trying to force himself to look at Harry to reassure him. “But I think all that alcohol has finally caught up to me,” Louis tried to say it without laughing, but for some reason, it sounded even funnier when he spoke it than in his own head.

Harry laughed along, but Louis could tell that it was an uncomfortable laughter, as if Harry didn’t know what they were laughing about. Louis didn’t either. Louis didn’t know what he was supposed to do, actually.

On one hand, he wanted to keep kissing Harry but on the other he just needed to get rid of that fucking headache and the way his stomach wanted to pour itself out. He couldn’t stay near Harry that way, though, otherwise he would make a mess of himself in front of the other man.

“I think I need to use the loo for a moment,” he finally decided. “You stay right here, I’ll be right back.” He put a finger on Harry’s lip, tapping it twice against it and when he stepped away from him, he felt like he was about to lose his balance.

“You sure you can go alone?” Harry looked at him with furrowed brows, one hand securing Louis’ arm so he could steady himself. Louis couldn’t quite make out how concerned Harry was because his vision had gotten a bit blurry too.

“I’m fi-i-ne,” Louis hiccuped, shaking himself away from Harry’s hold as he tried to walk straight towards the glass door as he turned around.

The pack of people inside the penthouse living room looked like a gigantic mass, Louis wasn’t sure he would be able to find his way to the bathroom alone. He almost turned around to ask Harry for help when one distinguishable green figure appeared in front of him from the other side of the glass.

“Tommo, are you okay?” An Irish voice spoke, and that he could recognise, but still he couldn’t put a name to the face. He thought if he only walked closer to check, he then would know who it was. It felt like he had forgotten about anything and anyone else but Harry at that moment.

He took a look back at the man himself one last time to make sure that he was still there, that he hadn’t gone away. Which he hadn’t, thankfully, but he was now being approached by two other people that apparently had come out of nowhere to talk to him. As long as they didn’t steal Harry away and kept him entertained until Louis got back, it was alright.

Then, Louis remembered to answer the person who had talked to him before. “I’m alr–” He didn’t have the time to finish speaking as he took a step further but was met face first with the glass door, banging his forehead right against it.

If his headache wasn’t strong enough already, that had completely shot a rush of pain through Louis’ skull and maybe that had been too much because all he could feel was himself falling back. Before he could completely fall on the floor, though, he saw Niall’s – oh, that had been Niall, it made sense – face coming closer and helping him, but that had been the last thing he remembered, because then he completely blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

It took a moment for Louis to realise he wasn’t sleeping anymore. He became aware of the darkness behind his eyelids at the same time he felt a few wet swaps against his feet and then suddenly everything around him came to life again.

He took a deep breath and felt himself lying on a soft bedding. He turned on his back without opening his eyes yet. He squinted them shut, noticing that the outside world seemed to be brighter than it would be at the usual time he’d wake up.

The wetness of something lapping at his feet didn’t stop, and he decided it was about time to check what the hell was going on down there.

Opening his eyes was harder than he anticipated and as the daylight reached his eyes he was hit with a sensation that felt like it had been throbbing inside his head for however long he had been asleep. He led a hand against his forehead, feeling a small lump on it as he sat straight against the bed – yes, he was on a bed, at least that. He looked around himself recognising his own bedroom, which was good news, and then it didn’t take much longer for him to join the dots that what had been licking at his bare feet was Clifford.

“Atta boy,” Louis managed to say, and he felt his throat hoarser than it had ever been. His head also hurt more from the sound of his own voice and he tried to steady himself as his surroundings swayed around him, his stomach also growling painfully.

Clifford might’ve thought that was the perfect opportunity to jump on the bed, his massive body climbing across Louis, coming straight to his face and licking all over it.

“Hey! Easy, Cliff!” Louis tried to laugh and hold his dog away from himself. He patted on his head and the dog settled down, circling Louis’ lap until he found a comfortable position to sit.

Louis scratched the curly fur between Clifford’s ears and then took his room in. It was indeed too bright for it to be any time close to six o’clock, when Louis was used to waking up. Clifford being at his bedpost was another sign that the timing wasn’t right either.

He looked at the nightstand beside his bed searching for his phone, only to find a glass of water, two pills beside it and a note. He frowned, reaching out to get the paper in hand.

_Tommo,_

_Please take these painkillers as soon as you wake up and don’t be late for work tomorrow. I don’t know what you drank tonight, but I know you can pull yourself together. I tried to take your clothes off so you could sleep better but you said I was taking advantage of you, threatened to punch me and fell face first on your bed. Don’t blame me!_

_DON’T BE LATE ! ! !_

_Nialler x_

It wasn’t necessary for Niall to have written his name on the note since Louis could recognise that awful handwriting anywhere.

He wanted to laugh at Niall worrying about him, wanting to take care of him only for Louis to almost punch the poor lad in the face, apparently. But he couldn’t since reading the note made Louis remember how bad last night had felt. Well, remember as much as he could, which was almost nothing. He knew he had gone to Simon’s Halloween party – he looked at himself to confirm he had been wearing his Doncaster jersey, but that was about it. He didn’t remember drinking much, but it seemed it had been a lot, hence the headache that hadn’t soothed overnight. Other than that, it was all blank, no recall from Niall bringing Louis back home or whatsoever.

Besides the pain on his head, the dryness of his throat, Louis also felt a cold and nervous shiver go through his body as he read again the words on the paper in block letters and underlined.

_DON’T BE LATE ! ! !_

What time was it anyway?

Niall’s note had interrupted his search for his mobile and looking at the nightstand again, he realised his phone wasn’t there. He groped around the bed for it, disturbing Clifford. The dog stood up and jumped out of the bed and Louis threw the pillows and blanket he had slept over on the floor, still not finding his phone.

“Shit.” He sat on the bed on his knees, desperate he’d lost his phone when he most needed it. “Where the fuck is it?”

He then remembered his kit shorts had pockets, patting himself to finally feel the rectangular device inside one of them. How he hadn’t felt it before, he didn’t know, but he was relieved for that when he got it in his hand.

That was very brief, because as he pushed the home button, the mobile didn’t light up. He pressed all the other buttons to see if it would come back to life. It didn’t and so Louis realised that it might’ve run out of battering during the night, and as Louis didn’t let Niall help him out of his clothes, Niall didn’t even bother taking it out of his pocket, to see if it was charged or just plug it for safety, since he was the one to warn Louis not to be late that morning.

So much for a fucking note, then.

Louis hurried to get his charger and plug his phone, letting it charge as he got up from the bed and ran in search for a clock, almost tripping over the blanket on the floor. Clifford followed his steps excitedly and Louis wanted to tell him off, but he didn’t even have time. As soon as he reached the kitchen, the clock on the microwave was showing him _10:28._

He was so fucking late.

Fuck.

He was more than two hours late. His alarm hadn’t gone off. He had a fucking headache and a hangover from drinking too much last night, which he didn’t even remember. And if he was gonna get ready to go to work, it would take him at least another half hour, he also needed to have breakfast, take Clifford for a walk…

There was too much going on and Louis just didn’t know what to do.

Simon was probably gonna have his head anyway.

(Why did he always have a party in the middle of the week? Making people work the next day was far from a good idea, but still he’d insist on it – not that it had ever been a problem for Louis. He’d never gotten hangover the day after, showing up at work better than ever, making everyone around him jealous. That was, until now, when Louis became one of those people who would appear at the office barely showered, clothes all mismatched and cup of coffee in hand because he didn’t have time to do anything but try not to be even more late).

Clifford nuzzled his head against Louis’ leg, making Louis finally snap out of his worrying thoughts and make a move out of the kitchen. He left his dog dumbfounded as he rushed back to his bedroom, checking his phone to see that it had charged a bit, allowing him to type his password in and unlock it.

The amount of texts and missed calls he had didn’t even faze him.

Niall’s were the ones taking up most of his notifications, followed by Zayn’s and Liam’s, then the office number as several missed calls, and then a few messages from Simon himself.

He was so fucked.

Why didn’t he have a home line again?

Ripping off the plaster once and for all, Louis opted to go to Simon’s texts first. He could deal with the others later, but ignoring his boss for longer could cost him a lot – if it hadn’t already cost him his job, fuck.

_Louis, I will be brief and say that you are more than aware of how much I condemn such slack behaviour from my employees._

_Although, you’ve always been a stellar example and as such I will trust you that this will never occur again._

_You are excused to work from home today, for whatever reason it is that you didn’t inform HR you couldn’t make it to work._

_I have forwarded instructions on how to proceed to your email and please know this is a one time occasion. Should you present yourself unable to work without a plausible justification, I will see you to my office personally._ _  
_ _Simon Cowell_

That didn’t sound good although it was better than receiving a simple message saying that he was fired. Simon was pissed, but at least he recognised that Louis had never done anything wrong at his job, giving him an opportunity not to mess up again.

He took a heavy breath and went through the rest of his messages, replying to Niall and explaining what had happened, telling Liam and Zayn that he was alright, calling HR just to make sure they knew of the situation, and then checking his email inbox to see that Simon had indeed sent him not one, but a few emails on things he had to do that day as so to compensate for missing work without warning.

It could’ve gone worse, Louis reckoned. Now he would only have to focus on what he had to do and make sure things would follow as planned.

Sitting on his bed, he let himself calm down from the chaotic awakening he had. With his headache still throbbing in the front of his head, he then remembered the glass of water and painkillers Niall had left for him. No better time to take them than in that moment, finally getting a start on the day trying not to feel so poorly.

A good shower and a cuppa would also help, and that’s what he did after drinking the water with the pills. He headed to his bathroom and took a well deserved hot shower, washing away the remaining of his drunk night, washing his hair and taking the time to massage his scalp to help the headache go away. Soon he was wrapped around his towel in his bedroom again, choosing a comfortable outfit for the day since he was staying in. November had woken him up with bright daylight, but as he looked outside the window, he noticed the sky was closing in. The cold weather looked like it was coming on full, so getting cosy inside his own house was the best he could do.

Clifford was waiting for him in the hallway and followed Louis’ steps to the kitchen, probably waiting for something to eat, since it had been way past his breakfast time.

“There you go, lad.” Louis filled Clifford’s bowl with his usual food, also refilling his water bowl, watching his dog almost devour it all.

He smiled to himself as things seemed to finally start falling into place again. Since getting out of the shower, his headache had soothed considerably, brushing his teeth helped with his throat and he wasn’t feeling so sick from his stomach. His Yorkshire tea would certainly help him with that.

Only that, when he’d opened his cupboard to get the box of tea, he realised it was empty.

Louis then remembered, he had everything planned out for that morning: he had run out of tea last night before the party, so he made a mental note to wake up the next day and get tea to go at the café on his way to Syco, and then after work he would go grocery shopping and buy it.

With how things turned out, his plan had completely gone down the drain.

“You must be shitting me today, seriously,” Louis complained to himself, exhaling tiredly.

Now he would have to go out anyway, buy some tea for himself when he was ready to just sit and lazily work from his couch. Peachy.

He went back to his bedroom, looking for some shoes and another jacket to put on, grabbing his wallet on the way to the living room, only stopping to spot Clifford sitting straight on his four legs.

“I know you wanna go out, but I’ll be back soon, alright? Be a good boy,” Louis said, ready to open the door when he heard the loudest thunder coming from outside.

“No, just no!” He closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn’t believe he couldn’t catch a break that morning. All Louis wanted was to drink some tea, why did it have to be so bloody difficult?

He quickly went to the service area to get an umbrella because he wouldn’t let the rain ruin his plans. He would get that tea even if it was the last thing he would have to do. And so, he braced himself, leaving his flat and taking the lift downstairs.

It had taken less than 2 minutes for him to reach the ground floor, but when the doors opened and he faced the entrance of his building, he saw the rain was pouring outside.

“Shit, fucking shit. Okay, alright, I can do this,” Louis told himself, breathing in and out as he walked the hallway distance towards the front door. He had come all the way down, he wouldn’t go back now.

He stopped by the large door that led to the street, looking to see if he could open his umbrella outside. Just as he was considering his options, the door opened and one of Louis’ neighbours walked inside, completely soaking wet.

“This rain, my dear, started so suddenly. It was such a beautiful day not ten minutes ago,” the old lady said as she dropped her grocery bags on the floor and tried to dry herself, patting her clothes and shaking her arms and legs. “Are you going out?” She pointed to Louis’ umbrella.

“No other option, I’m afraid,” he answered, ready to open it before pushing the door.

“Oh dear, you shouldn’t do that,” the lady warned him but Louis already had a foot on the pavement, stretching out one arm to hold the door and the other holding the open umbrella still inside the building.

He sent a lopsided smile to the lady, shrugging as he finally stepped outside. The door closed behind him and Louis hurried to make sure the umbrella was protecting him from the rain. It was too heavy, though, and Louis had barely taken five steps away from his building when a strong blow of wind cut through him. He lost his balance, and the umbrella slipped from his hand, flying away towards the street. Before Louis could make his legs work to go after it, a car ran over his umbrella and Louis almost screamed in the middle of the street for how pissed he was.

What the fuck was going on on that day?

Had he gotten up on the wrong side of the bed? No, that couldn’t be it, since the fucking problem was that Louis didn’t wake up at all. This was all a bad dream, that’s what it was. Louis would soon wake up, his alarm clock finally going off, and he would be ready to go to work with no problems.

If only it could be that easy.

It wasn’t, and Louis was shaken away from his thoughts by a splash of water from the street as a car passed way too close to the curb, making Louis even more wet than he already was from standing under the pouring rain as he wondered how his day had turned out so shitty.

“Well, since I’m already out in the rain, might as well get wet,” he reconciled himself to his horrible fate that day. Getting that damn tea was a matter of honour now (and also because he really needed it to feel better, more than ever) and so he braced himself once again, walking under the heavy rain to the café a couple of blocks away where he’d usually get his morning order before heading to Syco if he didn’t have time to have proper breakfast at home.

The walk was not pleasant at all; the rain didn’t seem to stop anytime soon and so Louis’ plan to get the tea and go back to his flat was cut short, since Louis thought it was better to wait for a while at the café, ordering not only his drink but something to eat as well. The place was always cosy and welcoming, so there wasn’t a reason for Louis not to stay in there, wait for the rain to go away, relax and forget about how unfortunate his morning had been. Besides, because of the rain, even though it was already almost noon, as Louis stepped inside the establishment he noticed it was pretty much empty, so he could have a nice seat and enjoy his now brunch with little to worry.

After ordering his tea along with a muffin and a croissant, Louis sat down waiting for the girl who worked there to bring them over to him. Louis knew her from the other times he had been there. Daphne was her name, and she was always nice to him, this time not being any different. It didn’t take long for her to approach his table, give him a sympathetic smile and tell him to enjoy his food.

The smell of fresh-baked goods and the sweet scent of his tea was a reward for Louis after everything he had gone through that morning. Things would be alright after having some food in his system, as food always made everything better.

Louis watched outside the window as the rain kept falling hard. Despite how ugly London always looked when it rained, it usually had its charm. Distractedly, Louis got his tea cup in hands, wondering if the rain would last long, if this winter would come as a rainy one instead of a dry or even a snowy one, for a change… Louis didn’t even notice he had led the cup to his mouth and as soon as he took a gulp from the drink, he spit it all out from how hot it was, his tongue burning from the contact.

“Sir, are you alright?” Daphne asked, coming to the table as she must’ve seen Louis making a mess out of himself.

“I’m– m’alright,” Louis tried to answer, his tongue poking out of his mouth, fanning it with his hand trying to cool it down. “T’washot, thatswut.”

Louis didn’t even notice he had also spilled the tea all over the table. The girl came to clean it, telling him she would bring another one for him on the house.

Louis thanked her nodding, trying to collect himself.

It seemed that Thursday wasn’t his day at all.

He settled on waiting for the tea again, this time making sure he blew on it and waited for it to cool down before drinking when she placed the new cup on his table.

It was hard to drink again, or even eat the muffin and the croissant with his burned tongue, but slowly he finished all of it. He spent longer at the café than he had previously intended to, but even then, the rain hadn’t stopped as he had hoped.

Louis couldn’t stay in there forever though. He had things to do and a dog to take care of, so facing the rain again was his only option. He paid for his tab, apologised for the mess he had made and walked out in the rain again, this time in no rush to get back to his flat. He was already fucked, how else more could he be?

Apparently, a lot more, since being soaking wet wasn’t bad enough already, as he got inside his building he found out the power had gone out.

“Wonderful,” Louis sighed, sniffing from how cold and wet he was feeling. So, taking the lift wasn’t an option and he would have to take five flats of stairs up to his flat. “Just fucking brilliant,” Louis mumbled through gritted teeth, taking a deep breath, already feeling tired.

What was the emergency energy generator for, then, if it didn’t fucking work when they needed it? Fucking useless, the thing was.

Louis complained to himself all the way up to his floor and when he finally reached his flat door, he was almost out of breath. At least he wasn’t so wet anymore, but still, he would have to take another shower, change those clothes and would have nothing else to do since he couldn’t even work with no power or internet connection.

Clifford greeted Louis when he stepped inside, circling him with his tail wiggling happily.

“I’m sorry boyo, but I can’t take you outside now.” Louis patted him on the head, making the dog stop and look at him with hooded eyes, whining softly.

Louis tried to ignore how dejected Clifford looked, toeing off his wet shoes by the door and walking straight to his bedroom. He took his clothes off, got his phone in hand – it had at least charged more than fifty percent – emailing Simon explaining the situation and that he would get to work as soon as his power came back again. He couldn’t let Simon think he was avoiding his responsibilities.

And so he went for another shower, feeling the exhaustion of the past couple of hours dawn on him. His head was heavy again, but not aching this time. It must’ve been from all he’s had gone through. It would probably be better for him to just go back to bed and wait for things to go back to normal later.

Lying his head on the pillow almost felt like a restart, as if falling asleep again meant he never woke up and the nightmare he found himself in that morning would finally be over.

Waking up next time should be easier than it was the first time around.

 

*

 

Having his wishes granted was becoming an almost impossible task, Louis realised as soon as he opened his eyes.

It was late, way later than he imagined, or that he had hoped to have woken up. He had just wanted to lie down for a while, rest and forget about whatever the hell he had gone through in the morning, waiting for the power to come back so he could go on about his day normally. It seemed, though, the universe wasn’t on his side that day.

Why? For starters, his room was dark, which could only mean the power was still out, otherwise if any light in his flat had been suddenly on, Clifford would’ve barked to warn him. Second, when he woke up, he couldn’t breathe properly. His nose was all stuffed up, and he felt an uncontrollable need to sneeze, which he did, multiple times before it finally ceased.

“Fucking hell,” Louis said, only to notice how bad his throat was feeling, making him cough horribly.

It didn’t take much thinking for Louis to know he had gotten a cold from his outing under the heavy rain that morning.

Amazing.

It had been ages since he was last sick, so obviously Louis felt like dying. His body ached, his throat seemed to be on fire and even though no air was coming through his nose, he still felt it running.

Before Louis could get up from the bed to go to the bathroom, he heard Clifford padding through the hallway, making his way to his bedroom.

“Lad, things are not good.” Louis tried to breathe in deeply, but his nose was completely blocked and his voice sounded nasal. He got up, quickly going to the loo to blow his nose and then carefully walking across his still dark flat, heading to the kitchen to look for more pills to take to suppress the symptoms.

God, he felt dead on his feet, too worn out, tired and sick.

Clifford was watching him from the floor with pity in his eyes as Louis drank a glass of water to help swallow the pills.

“What did I do to deserve this, Cliff?” Louis shook his head and Clifford let out a weak bark. He left the glass on the sink and walked by his dog, patting him on the head.

He went back to his room, immediately lying on the bed, looking forward to getting comfortable in it again. He looked at his phone, only bothering to check the time. Almost 8 pm. Fuck, he had done none of the things he was supposed to do, and now he was dreading to know if Simon had been in contact with him again or if anyone had checked on him.

Louis decided he would deal with that the next day. He was too drowsy to care at that moment, and hopefully, after the meds he’d taken, he would wake up in a better shape to go to work. He only made sure he had enough battery for the night, turning off anything that could consume too much energy from his phone, double-checking if his alarms were all set for the morning, and then he turned on his side, closing his eyes.

The weight of Clifford hopping onto the bed and making himself comfortable by Louis’ side was the last thing he remembered before dozing off again.

 

*

 

It was suffice to say things didn’t get better for Louis, starting with the fact he had barely slept the night. Maybe it had been from the amount of time he had already slept during the day, or because of the fucking cough that wouldn’t stop.

At some point a couple of hours after they had gone to bed, Clifford decided it was not a great decision to stay near a sick Louis, opting to sleep by the floor. Not long after, he left the room altogether after much coughing and tossing and turning in bed from Louis (and also because the power had finally come back, lighting up the flat where the lights hadn’t been turned off).

Louis couldn’t blame the poor dog, he was getting annoyed with himself too. He even checked his medicine cabinet to see if he had any syrup for his cough, but there wasn’t any. He didn’t even have tea so he could mix it with lemon and honey to help, for fuck’s sake.

The night went on restless and once dawn turned into morning that Friday, Louis figured he couldn’t go back to work in that state, although he couldn’t stay at home feeling that awful either. So, to avoid any more complications with Syco and to make sure he would get the right medication to get rid of the cold, he decided it was best for him to see a doctor and ask for a prescription and also a doctor’s note so he could have the day off without Simon complaining.

He was sick, bloody hell, barely standing on his feet. The man couldn’t blame Louis for that.

Going to the doctor’s surgery wasn’t an easy task (at least it had stopped raining) since Louis was feeling too poorly – which the doctor saw through him right away. Louis didn’t even need to ask him anything, dismissing him from work for the day and telling him that if he didn’t get better over the weekend after taking the meds he was prescribing him, he should come back to see him.

Louis thought it was a bit exaggerated, but he followed the doctor’s order promptly, going to the pharmacy and buying everything before heading back home.

First thing he needed to do before anything else was to inform Syco of his sick leave, so when he stepped inside his flat again, he didn’t even pay attention to where or what he was stepping on, too focused on getting to his laptop to write them an email.

It was only when he had taken a few steps inside and Clifford started to bark after him that Louis stopped, looking behind himself to see the mess he had made on his floor.

“Fucking hell, Clifford, are you serious? I should say you’re shitting me, because you clearly did!” Louis stopped on his tracks outraged that he had stepped on his own dog’s poop inside his flat.

He took off the shoe he had stepped on it with, looking for a place to put it while he went to the service area to fetch a cloth to clean the mess. The closest thing he could find was the table. He knew that wasn’t sanitary enough, and for some odd reason, he also knew there was some memory of his mother telling him to never put a shoe on a table ‘cause that was not a good sign. Maybe it was related to the sanitary thing, Louis didn’t know, he never paid attention to any superstitious thing anyone ever told him, anyway. Right at that moment, he was too worried to clean that gross thing on his floor to really care, so he left the shoe there, heading quickly to get the cloth and coming back to clean it all up with Clifford by his side watching his every move.

It was mainly his fault, Louis admitted to himself after the whole thing was gone. He hadn’t taken Clifford for a walk since Wednesday before the party. It was doomed for something this bad to happen since his dog never pooped inside. Well, now he had done it and Louis had to deal with it. As soon as he had everything settled, breakfast eaten, medications taken, laptop ready for him to finally start working and send over the doctor’s note to the office, Louis would go out with him to avoid any more surprises.

And so he did all those things although it made him feel even more tired than he already was. Trying to focus on working was very hard, specially with the amount of coughing and sneezing that was going on, which was putting Louis completely off.

He hoped he would wear this cold off soon enough because he couldn’t stand being in such a bad mood for too long. Things had better start working in his favour, the weekend was coming up and Louis didn’t want to stay home recovering from it the whole time.

Niall, Liam and Zayn had texted him, telling they would come by sometime to check on him after he told them how he was feeling. He couldn’t let his friends think he was in a funk. He would have to pull it through whether or not he wanted to.

Clifford staying by the foot of the couch all Friday long keeping him company while he caught up on his late work from the previous day helped Louis. At least he had that to comfort himself with after the terrible almost two days he’d had.

 

*

 

Louis was pretty sure he would never have another calm morning in his life, not after the past two days and specially not with the way he woke up that Saturday morning with Clifford barking out loud non stop from the living room.

All he wanted was to lie in bed since his cold was still going strong. But no, his monstrous dog had to wake him up earlier than he planned, for whatever reason he found it was worth barking as if his life depended on it.

Grunting, Louis threw the pillow he had placed over his head on the floor and reluctantly got out of bed. His nose was still stuffed, so he had to take a few deep breaths to finally manage to breathe properly and walk outside his bedroom to inspect what was all the fuss about.

Clifford’s barking had become hoarse from how long he had already done it. Louis was getting worried since it was very unusual of Clifford to be so insistent on something. If there was someone breaking into Louis’ flat, Louis figured he should be better prepared than walk into his living room only in his pj’s bottoms. Oh well, there was nothing he could do but wait to see if he was gonna get murdered or not. If so, at least it would end his suffering for the past couple of days.

It was not a burglar, Louis realised as soon as he got to the living room. Rather, he found Clifford next to the window, cornered between his two love seats, still barking as if there was something hiding behind the curtains.

But there wasn’t anything or anyone hiding there.

It was way worse than that.

Before he could smell anything – thanks to his backed up nose – he saw it, a dark smoke coming up from the floor, making its way out through the window.

Louis rushed to get closer, wondering what the fuck was going on. Clifford didn’t stop barking when Louis approached him, instead looking from him to the floor as if to tell him “LOOK WHAT IS GOING ON HERE, HUMAN!”

And Louis did. He saw the plug of his laptop battery all burned out, a few flames leaving the socket on the wall and reaching the tip of the curtain, making it catch fire.

“Holy fuck!” Louis exclaimed, leading both hands to his hair in desperation.

How his entire flat hadn’t caught fire by that, Louis didn’t know, but it was well on its way if he didn’t stop it.

He thought better than to rush to the kitchen to get some water, because throwing it right at the socket would probably cause a bigger catastrophe, so before anything he caught the cable from the battery and pulled it, trying to unplug it from the socket. Then he got the throw quilt over the couch, slapping it against the socket and the curtain trying to smother the fire.

Clifford didn’t leave Louis’ side as Louis put out the flames entirely. Thankfully, it hadn’t been anything too alarming, but had Louis taken longer to get out of bed and see what was happening, his flat, nay the whole building would probably be in danger.

Louis couldn’t even get angry at Clifford for all the barking since his dog was only warning him that something was wrong.

“Good boy, Cliff,” Louis exhaled tiredly, sitting on the floor beside his dog, patting him on the head and inspecting the state of his burned curtain. “But how the fuck did it catch fire?”

He pulled the battery plug closer to him, looking at it attentively, wondering if it had caused any more damage. He quickly got up, going for the couch, where he had left his laptop last night before going to bed, noticing the other end of the cord was still plugged to the device.

“Fuck!” He opened the lid and tried to turn on his laptop, to no avail.

He had left his laptop plugged in all night long and obviously, as Louis spent another night barely asleep because of his own cough again, he knew the building had suffered another series of power instability because of the heavy rain that had come back during the night.

Louis didn’t even think of unplugging his devices when the power kept coming and going, and so his laptop had been the one suffering from it.

At least it hadn’t been any other household appliance like his fridge or microwave. Louis had to count that as a win amongst all the other bad stuff that had already happened to him.

He hadn’t had a headache since Thursday, but he could feel a small pain slowly making its way through his temple. He knew it wasn’t from the cold, but for how tired he was getting from all those unfortunate events happening to him without a break.

Louis couldn’t even catch a break from his own body, since he coughed again, probably from both the remaining of the smoke that had come from the fire and also his incessant cold. Closing his eyes, Louis lay his head on the back of the couch, just wishing he could have a normal day for once again.

The soft feeling of Clifford licking his fingers was almost enough to make Louis smile to himself, because despite everything, his dog still managed to make him feel a tad better. Louis petted him, scratching his head, behind his ears and under his chin, which Clifford probably thought it was an invitation to jump on the couch, lying his gigantic paws on Louis’ bare chest.

“Down, boy!” Louis said, half laughing half coughing, trying to untangle himself from Clifford limbs. Just then, the sound of his phone ringing back at his room echoed through his flat. That prompted him to stand up, leaving Clifford to trail behind him as he walked to the bedroom to see who was calling him.

It was only when he got the phone in hand that he saw the time – almost 9h30 – and Niall’s name as the incoming call.

“Are you up already?” The Irish voice asked before Louis could even say hello.

“Not out of my own will, but yes,” Louis let out, annoyingly.

“Good. I’m coming over, do you need anything?”

Louis considered the past three days, and yes, he needed a lot of things, but he wouldn’t lay all of them on Niall over the phone.

“Just a box of Yorkshire tea and your willingness to walk my dog for me,” he said instead since he still hadn’t gone out for grocery nor had the courage or the strength to leave his flat after coming back from the doctor on Friday morning.

“That I can do. Promise you won’t pass me any of your germs while I’m there?” Niall joked, which prompted Louis to laugh slightly.

“I’ll gladly hand them over to you if it means I’m free from this suffering,” Louis sniffed, trying to suppress himself from sneezing. “Just bring your arse over here, Horan, please and take me out of my misery.”

“Twat,” Niall snorted over the phone, “but yeah, I’ll be over soon, don’t cry. Laters.”

“Thanks, Ni. See ya.”

Louis pressed the button to end the call, finally feeling relieved to have some company and someone to help him.

Niall would probably make Louis spit out everything that had gone on with him, but Louis would gladly do it if it meant he would get distracted and especially, avoid anything bad happening with him alone. He knew Niall wasn’t the safest person to be around most of the times, but he figured they could both spend the afternoon together without killing each other.

 

*

 

Saturday turned out to be a rather good day for Louis. It might’ve been because of Niall’s company or because the universe had decided to finally to give him a truce. Whatever it was, Louis was thankful for that.

Niall spent the afternoon with him after bringing over not only tea, but a few groceries, saying that Louis needed to take care of himself if he wanted to be in shape to go back to work on Monday. They had lunch together – Chinese takeaway also provided by Niall, and later they went out for a walk with Clifford, which made the dog extra happy since he had been locked up inside the flat for three days. It was also good for Louis to go out for the same reason, to breathe fresh air hoping his cold would finally go away.

Before Niall went back home, they played some FIFA, lifting Louis’ spirits, since he still beat Niall’s arse on the game. They were doing good despite Niall’s pity comments that Louis was looking like rubbish, that Louis had found himself in some fucked up situations and that maybe going to the Halloween party hadn’t been a good idea after all.

“As if the party had anything to do with me being in a misery streak,” Louis pointed out.

“As opposed to the lucky streak you had just before the party.” Niall placed the controller on the coffee table after they had finished the game. “This?” He gestured to the amount of Kleenex Louis had used over the past hour. “I swear I’ve never seen you this sick since I’ve known you. Not to mention you fucking up things at work. Simon was a fucking beast on Thursday and he wasn’t completely happy on Friday either, but there wasn’t anything he could do since you’re actually sick. Also let’s not forget the fucking fire, Tommo. What the hell, this is worse than anything that’s happened to me and bad things always seem to surround me, but it’s never been this bad. The stars are not on your side. We need to check if you’re under some Retrograde Mercury or some shit.”

“Spare me from this bullshit, Horan,” Louis said before coughing and getting yet another tissue to blow his nose. “Sometimes I do have bad days, apparently they all just decided to conspire against me at the same time.” He shook his head, throwing the kleenex away along with the other dirty ones. “I have one more day before going back to work and I’m already feeling better. This is nothing to worry about, you’ll see me back on my feet soon enough.” He tried to smile at Niall, patting him on the back.

He had to believe in his own words otherwise he would drive himself crazy because he didn’t know if he could handle another bad day.

Niall didn’t comment on it anymore, and after another match, he finally decided it was time for him to head out. He promised Louis that he’d plan with Liam and Zayn to come over again the next day for Sunday lunch. Louis couldn’t complain about it, since he was still waiting on his two other best friends to finally pay the visit they had promised him.

After settling back alone at his flat, Louis decided he’d had an eventful day for a sick person and so having dinner before going to bed was his best call.

He just didn’t consider that while heating the leftovers from lunch he’d get distracted with Clifford who thought Louis would be up for some fetching game with his favourite squishy toy. Louis ended up forgetting the food on the stove and of course it had burned.

Why did he even try to do things on his own? Everything always seemed to end up in a disaster for him these days. So he eventually gave up, settling on tea – which he couldn’t get wrong, for fuck’s sake, but adding lemon and honey to it as so to have some effect on his cold. He would not stand for another day of coughing and sneezing. He had been taking the meds and syrup at the right intervals, he was supposed to get better soon.

Hopefully, by the time he’d wake up the next day, Sunday always being his favourite day of the week, he’d finally be over it.

 

*

 

When Louis opened the door of his flat to Zayn, Liam and Niall at noon, their cheerful expressions suddenly turned into frowns as they saw Louis’ annoyed face.

“What’s wrong, Tommo?” Zayn asked, stepping inside as he took off his shoes and placed his coat on the hook by the wall.

Liam followed him, carrying the bags with their takeaway burgers. Niall came in right after, closing the door behind himself as Louis simply left his friends to make themselves comfortable inside his house, walking as he stomped his feet towards the living room.

“Apparently everything,” Louis buffed, crossing his legs over the couch.

“Did something happened after I left yesterday? I should’ve figured when you texted this morning asking us to bring food over,” Niall said, sitting beside Louis while Liam took the bags to the kitchen with Zayn in tow.

“I thought it was better not to test if I could set my house on fire _again_ by cooking since yesterday I already burned reheated food.”

“You set your flat on fire?!” It alarmed Liam to hear that as he made his way back to the living room, sitting on the other couch as Zayn sat on the spot in front of him on the floor.

“A minor incident.” Louis shrugged. Clifford came closer to him, settling his head between Louis’ legs, asking to be petted. “Considering I might be in for more seven years of bad luck.”

Niall, Liam and Zayn shared a confused look among themselves.

“You? Saying you’re gonna have bad luck? What the fuck is going on, Lou?” Zayn questioned, brows furrowed.

Louis closed his eyes, shaking his head as he lazily scratched Clifford’s head.

“Even I have to admit things can’t possibly go right after you break a mirror.” He looked at his friends again, waiting to be judged by his own misfortune.

“No!” Niall gasped.

“Fuck, how did you do that?” Liam almost jumped out of his seat, sitting by the edge of the couch, eager to know more about that.

Louis took a deep breath before explaining how it had unfolded. “A fucking cockroach appeared in the bathroom after I took a shower this morning. It was walking on the fucking cabinet mirror, I don’t know how it did that. I tried to kill it with a bottle of shampoo, but obviously the shampoo hit the mirror instead of the damn thing, so… That’s how I’ll end up doomed for the next years of my life.”

The snort that came from Zayn made Louis shoot him a glaring look. Clifford followed his gaze letting out a bark at Zayn’s direction.

“I’m sorry. It’s just... After all the fate and luck talk we had before the party, this is so fucking hilarious. Especially because you believed none of it.” Zayn tried to contain himself from laughing out loud, which prompted a slap on the head from his own boyfriend.

“That’s not funny, Malik,” Liam’s voice was serious, “Louis could’ve gotten hurt, he’s been sick for days and you’re laughing at him.”

“You guys didn’t see him yesterday, he really looked like rub–”

“Rubbish, yeah, Niall, I might’ve missed the ten times you’ve mentioned it yesterday. That helps a lot, thanks,” Louis interrupted Niall from dissing him yet again. “But knock it off, Zayn, this has nothing to do with your tarot cards. You were all messing with me, it’s just a coincidence my life turned to shite after that.”

“Coincidence, yeah right.” Zayn shook his head. “You keep telling yourself that for the next seven years then, mate.”

“It’s just a mirror, that’s not really true, you know,” Niall pointed out, placing a hand over Louis’ shoulder.

It was Liam’s time to snort. “Says the person who avoids passing closer to any ladders.”

“That’s more of a safety measure than a superstition. I can’t have a fucking ladder falling over me head, Payno, c’mon,” Niall retorted, defensive.

“I think I might actually follow Niall’s advice on how to prevent accidents, I could really use that.” Louis sighed tiredly. “But anyway, whatever’s going on, it better just go the fuck away before tomorrow, ‘cause I can’t deal with this any longer, let alone at work.” Clifford licked at Louis’ hand softly, as if to comfort him.

“You’ve already recovered a bit from the cold, right?” Liam asked, concerned.

Louis patted Clifford on his back, and the dog took it as his cue to give his owner space again. “Considerably. Despite the rough nights, today’s been a lot better.” Louis stretched out his legs, slamming his hands over his thighs. “But you know what will be even better? If we fucking eat. I’m starving. It’s rude to keep a sick person from eating, ya know?”

Zayn laughed as he stood up from his place on the floor. “You were the one who threw a fit when we arrived, we could’ve been eating ages ago.”

Louis flipped him the finger before he also got up.

Liam laughed as he took Zayn’s hand and led him to the kitchen. “Cut him some slack, Z.”

Niall was right behind them, with Clifford following after him.

None of them let Louis do anything while they to set the table and placed the food for everyone to eat. Louis thought it was better to occupy himself giving his own dog a few treats since he had had breakfast not long before his friends arrived.

They settled to eat afterwards, each one with a burger combo along with chips and drinks, still chatting away as they enjoyed their meals. Louis could say he was very satisfied to be eating something that would fill his stomach properly. The burger was divine, and the chips were delicious, although Louis could use some more salt on them. His taste wasn’t a hundred percent back yet, he reckoned, but what harm could some salty chips do to him, anyway?

“Li, pass me the salt, will ya?” He asked and Liam quickly slid the salt shaker across the table closer to Louis. Just as Louis was about to get it in his hand, he managed to knock it over.

The unison gasp that left his friends’ mouths made Louis freeze on the spot. “What?”

“That’s, hm, it’s… not good to topple the salt,” Liam was careful when he spoke.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Louis threw his hand in the air, exasperated. “How much more bad luck can I get because of this?”

“If you throw the salt over your shoulders, none. It’s said to reverse the bad luck, actually,” Niall explained, taking a bite from his burger again, as if that was a common thing to do.

Louis rolled his eyes. “Right. Do I use the whole salt I spilled or what?”

“Someone seems desperate to get their luck back,” Zayn chuckled, making Liam pinch him on the arm in reprehension. “Ouch, I’m kidding. But no, it’s just a pinch.” He gestured to the salt spilled over the table.

“Fine,” Louis sighed annoyingly, trying to get some salt in his hand. “What should I do now? Any direction?”

“Yeah,” Liam answered.

“Actually, it’s over the left shoul–” Niall got up from his place just as Louis had turned around, giving him the back and already throwing the salt behind himself. “OUCH TOMMO!” The Irish lad exclaimed, painfully.

“Shit!” Zayn quickly got up from his seat as Louis faced Niall again, just to see him covering his eyes.

“Niall, are you okay?” Liam rushed to his other side, pulling Niall’s hand away so he could inspect what had happened.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, Ni. I didn’t see you.” Louis took a step closer to him, biting his lips nervously as he saw Niall trying to blow air at his own eyes.

“I might not see at all because of you, you fucker. I was trying to help! This stings, Jesus fucking Christ!”

“Hold on, let’s put some water on it, it might help.” Liam led Niall closer to the sink to help him wash his eyes.

It was kind of a hassle to get Niall to calm down and to actually have his eyes cleaned. Louis didn’t think he had thrown that much salt, but he figured Niall had been pretty close to him for it to be that bad.

A few minutes later, they were all back at the table along with a red-eyed and angry Niall, but finishing their burgers as if nothing major had happened.

Thankfully, there were no more incidents for the rest of Sunday. Soon Niall was feeling better, and they settled for a couple of FIFA matches as well playing with Clifford before they all headed home. They made sure Louis was alright, reminding him to take his meds and to set his alarm for the right time to prevent any more misunderstandings the next day at work.

Louis couldn’t wait to get back to the office after soaking at home for so long, so he reassured them he’d be back at Syco in one piece on Monday morning before saying his goodbyes to his friends.

Getting ready to go to bed that night, Louis was actually feeling much better from the cold. He would still continue to take the meds for the remaining days the doctor recommended just to make sure he was fully recovered, but he was positive he would be off the hook from at least one bad thing. All he could do was wait that all these unfortunate things happening these past few days would soon stop following him.

He deserved it. Nobody should go through so much shit for that long (he thought about Niall and all the times his friend had been through some rough patches over the years, feeling completely dejected for having caused him even more pain for what had happened over lunch). He hoped he wouldn’t become those kinds of people as he closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Standing in front of Syco’s building on Monday morning, Louis already knew it wouldn’t be an easy day.

At least waking up hadn’t been as chaotic as in the past four days. His alarm clock went off at the right time, he was feeling much better from the cold, only needing to blow his nose once and having no sneezing outbursts. He woke up Clifford for his morning walk; he came back home and his house was perfectly standing up with nothing catching fire, and he had his breakfast with no further problems – although he reckoned his tea wasn’t so on point but well, some days it would be like that, anyway. He took a shower with no intruding bugs coming his way, but that apparently had been the end of his morning with no casualties, because while shaving his beard, he managed to cut himself (for the first time in the almost ten years of having it), pretty deep.

That’s how he had left his house with an Iron-Man sticky plaster (the only first aid thing he even had in his house. He remembered he had bought it one time when the baby twins had come over and hurt themselves while playing. Ernie went to the chemist’s with him, picked up an Avengers box of the plaster and Louis couldn’t say no to his injured little brother) on the left side of his jaw. Afterwards, things only started going downhill from there, because trying to stop himself from bleeding had gotten him late to leave the flat, missing the tube he’d always catch and therefore waiting longer for the next one which meant he wouldn’t arrive on time at work.

Louis hoped Simon wasn’t already wanting his head for being late, but since nobody had called or texted him yet – he checked his phone as he stopped in front of the building – he figured he wasn’t in trouble again.

He took a deep breath, facing the tall glass door of the building’s entrance before stepping inside. He greeted the security guards and the lobby receptionists as he made his way to the lift hall after presenting his Syco ID card on the turnstile to give him access inside the facility. Letting out a relieved sigh for having finally made it to work, he waited for the lift to come to the ground floor.

If Louis was honest, he never noticed how long it took the lift to make its way to him on normal days. It usually was already there whenever he arrived at the lobby, if he remembered well, but that morning it felt like it was taking an eternity – two minutes to be more precise, Louis checked on his phone – when it finally opened its door to him. The sigh that escaped Louis’ mouth this time was of annoyance, since the lift was packed. Where the fuck were all those people coming from? Were they going up too or exiting on the ground floor? Nobody seemed to step out from it, though, and Louis had to squeeze his way through them so he could fit inside.

The ride up to the magazine’s floor was one of the worst of Louis’ entire life, he almost felt like having a claustrophobic attack through the whole fifteen-floor-trip. Louis thought it would become emptier as the lift went up, but every time one person left, it seemed another two entered on the next floor and it was driving him mad. Finally, when the lift’s display lit up the number 15 and the door opened, Louis could finally breathe properly. As he tried to make his way out, though, he tripped on somebody else’s feet, losing his balance as he put one foot outside on the floor and the doors closed around his other ankle.

“Motherfucker,” Louis murmured as the doors slid open again and he freed himself to step properly, walking (or more likely limping) in the hallway of his office’s floor and ignoring people’s pitiful eyes on him as the lift resumed to close the doors and continued going on its way.

“Morning, Louis. Having a rough one, eh?”

Louis looked up to see Greg, one of the radio hosts from Syco’s station, standing in front of him.

“If only it had been just this one.” Louis shook his head slightly, brushing his hand over his shirt, fixing the strap of his satchel bag over his shoulder and rolling his ankle, noticing that it was hurting.

“Grab a cup of coffee, I’m sure things will get better for you, Tommo.” Greg patted him on the shoulder as he walked past Louis, showing him his own filled mug.

“Not a big fan, but I suppose it could work.” Louis shrugged, trying to give Greg a sympathetic smile. “Did you come down here only for coffee or what, James?” He asked, intrigued, since it was unusual for people from the radio to be on the magazine’s floor.

“Don’t tell Liz, but the magazine crew always has better coffee than us peeps up at the studio,” Greg laughed, “but no, I actually had a brief meeting with Simon to talk about the Christmas schedule for the radio programs.”

Louis frowned. He hadn’t been aware of that. Even though he had nothing to do with the radio broadcasting division of the company, Simon usually asked Louis for insights on what types of programmes topics related to sports they could do. That meeting might’ve been something Louis had missed the memo while not coming to work, he guessed.

“Oi, nothing to worry about there, mate.” Greg smiled wide at him as he drank a sip of his coffee. “I had a sudden idea and wanted to let him know first thing. He wouldn’t leave his protegee out of the loop like that.” He winked cheekily.

“I’m not so sure I’m on his favourite people’s list at the moment.” Louis rolled his eyes. “But I hope he was in a good mood and will at least consider your idea.”

Greg grimaced. “Oh, well, he said he would sleep on it, so let’s see. But hey, I think I might have something lined up with sports too. I’ll let you know if something comes up if you’re interested in helping.” He started walking away from Louis in the direction of the lift.

“Anytime, James.” Louis sent him a thumbs up as Greg pressed the button to call it. Not even two seconds later, the doors opened and Louis glanced to see that it was empty as Greg stepped inside.

“See ya, Tomlinson.” Greg shot him another big smile before the doors closed in front of him.

Louis rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the feeling that everything around him was already not working in his favour that morning.

Maybe Greg was right though. Maybe a cup of coffee would help Louis face the day in a better mood.

He decided to leave his bag in his office first before heading to the small table at the end of the long hallway of rooms next to the toilets, where they had the coffee pot, tea bags and water, and occasionally a few biscuits. On the short way to his office, he greeted his coworkers, answering those who asked how he’d been, if he’s feeling better and whatnot. He quickly passed in front of Niall’s office, to see his short brown locks through the window already typing away on his laptop with his headphones on. Next to the other table, there was another person with his back turned to Louis, taking off a coat and wearing a green beanie. Louis didn’t remember anyone else working with Niall, for a long time now it had only been the Irish lad with the music column. He quickly recalled, then, Niall telling him over the weekend that Simon had hired a new guy for the music blog, so that must’ve been him. He made a mental note to come back later to chat with Niall and meet the other bloke properly.

Getting to his room, his assistant writer Stan was already there, turning on his computer to get a start on the day.

“Louis, you’re back!” Stan greeted him smiling. “Mate, you’ve given us a big scare last week. Everything alright now?”

“I hope so,” Louis scoffed, placing his bag on his desk, “but yeah, feeling better now. How have things been around here, Stanley?”

“Mostly fine. Simon almost ate me alive on Thursday when none of us could get ahold of you in the morning, so eventually he laid everything on me later when you said you couldn’t work from home.” He shrugged and Louis felt bad for his friend because he never intended to leave him alone to suffer from Simon’s demands. “Friday was easier since I had you on the other end working too, but still, Simon was like a hawk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him walking around the floor as much as last week. Let’s hope that with you back he’ll give us a break.”

Louis sagged his shoulders. “I’m sorry. Truly didn’t mean to make your life worse. Mine had gone terribly already so suddenly, last thing I wanted was to put you under pressure.”

“Don’t worry, Lou. I understand, no one can predict how things will go. You’re back now and feeling better, so let’s just get back to work, it’s what we should focus on, innit?”

“Sure thing. I might talk to Simon personally so he’ll get off your back if anything happens again, don’t worry.” Louis tried to give him an encouraging smile as Stan sat down on his chair and gave him a thumbs up before focusing on the things he had to do. “I’m heading to get coffee before being sucked into the pile of things I have to go through today. Want some?”

“Thanks, I’m fine. Go ahead.” Stan lifted his own coffee mug from beside his keyboard and Louis nodded, walking backwards towards the door.

When he stepped into the hallway after pushing the door closed and was about to turn around and walk towards the coffee table, he collided with something, or better (or worse) yet, someone else.

It was only when he felt something hot and wet running down his shirt that Louis realised what had really happened.

“Fuck,” he murmured, looking down at himself to see the front of his white shirt drenched with coffee, the strong smell coming up to fill his nose.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” A deep and slow voice said and Louis had to look up to see who it was because he was sure he had never heard their voice before.

Louis blinked as he saw a handsome face staring at him, with furrowed brows and worried green eyes. A face with a delicate shape and long brown hair falling on its side. A tall man, Louis noticed, taller than him, with a face he thought it was one of the prettiest things he had ever seen in awhile.

“Are you alright?” The man asked and Louis gulped dryly, snapping out of his thoughts. “Did the coffee burn you? Oh God, that’s gonna leave a stain on your shirt, I’m so sorry,” he apologised again and he sounded deeply sincere, much more than anyone should be for only bumping into another person.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Louis took a long breath, inspecting the state of his shirt again. “I’m the one who should say sorry, I didn’t see you coming down the hall. My bad, mate.” Louis looked up at the man again, to see he was about to open a smile but suddenly he closed his expression in another frown. “Sorry, are you new here?”

It intrigued Louis, he couldn’t deny it. Who was this gorgeous man standing in front of him, whom he had never crossed paths before at work? Was he another one of the radio guys that had come down to talk to Simon just like Greg earlier?

The frown on the man’s face deepened and for a moment he pursed his lips, and Louis was very confused with his reaction to a simple question. He was also feeling a bit uncomfortable because as much as he appreciated a nice good-looking lad looking at him, the guy’s eyes were very intense on him before he seemed to collect himself from whatever was going through his mind.

“I’m Harry.” He smiled, softening his expression, but with no real enthusiasm. “It’s my first day, I’m working with Niall on the music blog.” He gestured with his head towards Niall’s office and then it clicked for Louis that the man he had seen with Niall before was the same one standing in front of him.

“Oh, that’s right,” Louis snapped his fingers, “he told me about that. Well then, welcome to Syco Entertainment, Harry. This is not the usual greeting we give our new coworkers, but,” he gestured to himself, letting out a self-deprecating chuckle, “this just seems to be me own self starting another day on the wrong foot. Probably the same one the lift door smashed before.” He shrugged, reminding himself of the faint pain on his foot. He looked again at his shirt, sighing tiredly, wondering how the hell he was gonna work with a ruined shirt for the rest of the day.

“That sounds awful,” Harry’s voice was compassionate, as if he understood Louis’ misfortune this morning, but when Louis looked up at him one more time, he had a puzzled expression.

That guy was hard to read, Louis reckoned.

“I have a spare shirt in my bag, and some pain relief gel as well if you want to put on your feet,” Harry offered promptly.

It was Louis’ time to be puzzled.

“Why do you have these things in your bag?”

Harry shrugged. “What you said sounded just like any other day in my life. I’m impressed the coffee didn’t fall all over me instead, or that I didn’t fall on my arse as we bumped into each other. Although, the past few days have been anything but normal to me, anyway.”

Louis looked at Harry’s dejected yet thoughtful expression and somehow it felt like Louis knew what Harry was talking about, somehow he felt a connection to it, to him. It also gave him the slight sense he already knew Harry, had already felt sympathy for him, but he didn’t know how or why. He had only met him minutes ago and seen him briefly in Niall’s office, there wasn’t a reason for Louis to feel that way.

“I have a feeling I should start being as precautious as you, ‘cause I have nothing of the sorts with me and I really could use whatever you have to offer me.” Louis gave him a warm smile and for the first time Harry seemed to genuinely smile back at him.

“Alright, let’s go back to the office so I can get them for you.” Harry ran a hand through his long locks, exhaling heavily. “Were you on your way somewhere though?” He started walking again.

Louis followed him along. “On my way to coffee, actually,” he laughed. “Ended up getting it, anyway. Sorry for yours though.”

“Nah, I can always get another one.” Harry said, giving Louis a piercing look, as if he was trying to say something else. Louis might’ve looked confused by that because Harry quickly shook his head and stepped closer to Niall’s door, opening it and letting Louis walk inside first.

“Nialler!” Louis ignored the odd exchange, exclaiming as he entered the room, walking behind his friend and patting him on the back.

Niall took off his headphones and looked confused to Louis then to Harry. “Tommo, what happened?”

“Bumped into your new colleague and ended up with coffee all over meself. Peachy for a Monday morning, innit?” Louis explained, sarcasm trying to cover how tired already he felt.

“And the Iron-Man plaster?” Niall pointed to his face.

“Oh, right.” Louis touched the plaster. He had almost forgotten his first incident of the day. “Shaving can be a very dangerous activity, it seems.” He shrugged.

“Damn, you really need to get your shit together, Louis,” Niall snickered.

“Fuck off.” He flipped him off playfully. “It’s not my fault, you know? I can’t help if shit’s been following me around.”

“I think you could blame…” Niall made a dramatic pause, making Louis furrow his brows, “the fault in _your_ stars,” Niall joked and he quickly put his headphones back over his ears, knowing what would come next.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Niall!” Louis slapped him on the head. “Shut your fucking mouth, will ya?” He said, laughing though, and Niall gave him the finger, the other hand smoothing over the place Louis had hit him.

Harry let out a hiccup of laughter as he approached his desk after closing the door, already looking for his bag. Louis looked his way, noticing the bag was actually a big and apparently old backpack, all patched up as if it had been through hell and back, but somehow it still looked stylish with loads of buttons and pins, most of them from bands like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac, but also rainbows and some sayings like “Treat People With Kindness” or “All The Love”.

“So, you’ve met Harry, eh? He’s the one I told you about, but I’ve only properly met him today,” Niall said again, turning his chair around to face them both, taking off his headphones again as Louis made his way closer to Harry.

“I can say we’ve already got acquainted through a cuppa,” Louis joked and Harry looked at him, laughing again, but this time scrunching up his nose, which made a dimple pop out on his left cheek as he fumbled inside his bag.

Niall snorted. “He’s also Gemma’s brother, did he tell you?”

“Gemma Styles, from fashion?” Louis questioned, surprised.

“Yeah,” Harry answered, fishing a plain white t-shirt from inside the bag. Louis also noticed other pieces of clothes Harry had placed on top of his chair. Why did he carry so much stuff inside it, Christ? “She was the one to recommend me to Simon. It was something very sudden, last week actually.”

“And he simply decided to take you in?” Louis was very intrigued by that.

“Right?” Niall chimed in. “That’s what I asked him too when we talked earlier. He had an interview with Simon on Thursday, on Friday he was already in contact with HR and boom, here he is now.”

“I suppose he liked me?” Harry spoke and Louis could feel the uncertainty in his voice. He pulled a smaller bag from inside the backpack, from where he picked up a small tube of gel, which Louis figured it was the pain relief.

“Mate, it takes Simon Cowell a long time to click with someone. Unless you have Tommo’s luck here.” Niall gave a light punch on Louis’ arm. “I think he was the only other person Simon hired without batting an eye.”

Louis rolled his eyes at the same time Harry let out a laugh that sounded more of a constrained cough.

“It wasn’t like that, you know I had an im–”

“Impressive resumé, yeah. No need to rub it in our faces, Tomlinson,” Niall sounded jealous. “Everyone else here also has worked their arses off and impressed Cowell to be here, but what I’m saying is that Simon doesn’t trust someone that easily. He puts you through a lot of testing tasks that will drive you mad, the selection process is a pain in the arse, but with Harry it was just too fast, I guess.” Louis looked at Niall to see him with deep and thoughtful blue eyes. “Much like Louis, here, that’s all I’m saying.”

“Well, maybe me and Harry have some kind of magic that charmed Simon right away.” Louis winked at Harry hoping to make him laugh and show him that dimple once more, but when they made eye contact, Harry flinched his eyes away, paying attention to his bag again. “Although I think I might have to talk to him to make sure he’s not about to snap at me because of last week.” Louis turned his attention to Niall then, not sure what to make of Harry’s reaction.

“And if you are to talk to him, you better not go with a stained and smelly shirt,” Nall pointed out.

“That’s why I’m here, Horan, keep up,” Louis mocked. “Didn’t you see the amount of clothes Styles conjured from inside his Mary Poppins bag?”

Harry took the cue to hand Louis the white t-shirt he had put aside for him. “I hope this will make do. It might be a tad bigger on you though.”

Louis considered the item in his hand. “Oi! Nothing that a tuck-in can’t solve. Thanks.” He smiled at Harry and this time, Harry looked him in the eye, the green cheerfully giving Louis the once over.

A cold shiver went through Louis’ spine and he had to gulp to refrain himself from giving himself away.

Harry snapped his eyes from Louis again, reaching out now to the gel tube on his table, also handing it to Louis. “This is for your ankle, it gives you a small burning sensation but the pain goes away completely in a few minutes.”

Louis was about to take the gel in his hand when Harry pulled it back quickly. “Wait, let me just check.” He got the tube closer to his eyes and Louis figured Harry might’ve been shortsighted. “Oh yeah, that’s the right one. You can have it, no need to give me back, use it as you wish.”

Niall and Louis shared a confused look before Louis finally accepted the tube.

“Why wouldn’t it be the right one?” Niall asked, curiosity peeking out in his tone.

“Ah,” Harry seemed a bit embarrassed as he scratched the back of his neck, not quite looking at Louis or Niall, “I might’ve already mistaken some of the tubes I have in here. Apparently, unidentified gel in deceivingly small tube does not taste the same as toothpaste.”

A loud cackle came from Niall, as he bent himself over his table. Louis led the hand that wasn’t holding the t-shirt and the tube to his mouth, trying to refrain himself from laughing out loud too.

“You put relief pain gel in your mouth?” Louis asked, looking from the gel in his hand to Harry.

“Er, no.” Harry looked even more embarrassed, his cheeks getting flushed. “It was lube.”

Louis’ eyes widened and he had to turn away not to face Harry as he couldn’t contain himself from laughing. Niall was almost out of breath beside him, slapping his hand over his table too obnoxiously.

“I know, it’s…” Harry didn’t finish his sentence, probably feeling too self-conscious.

“Too hilarious, mate,” Niall managed to say through hiccups. “I’m sorry, but how on earth did you mistake lube for toothpaste?”

“It was dark, I didn’t have my glasses on, and yeah.”

Louis turned around, breathing in and out to calm himself down. The look Harry had was too hilarious, Louis could feel the shame written all over his face. But at the same time, poor lad. Louis couldn’t relate to something as bad ever happening to him (so far, he had to ponder), and yet the same sympathy feeling washed over him once again.

“Don’t look so smart, Niall,” Louis opted to shift the attention of the conversation, “you’ve made loads of messy mistakes over the years.”

“Yeah, can’t say that I haven’t, that’s true.” Niall shrugged, defeated. “Oh, would you look at us. A bunch of unlucky bastards, the epicentre of the losers. Although Louis only recently joined the club, but well, we’re all in this together.” He rolled his chair to the middle of the room, standing in between Louis and Harry, patting both of them on their backs. “It’s good not to feel alone anymore.”

“Dunno about the loser part,” Louis rolled his eyes, “but if you’re referring to not being alone in your office anymore, I’m sure Harry’s gonna keep you in good company from now on,” he changed the topic, never too keen on engaging Niall on his luck talk.

Harry smiled sheepishly at him. “I’ll try my best. Niall’s given me a warm welcome to his office already, so I’m sure we’ll get along well.”

“Not as warm as your coffee on Lou’s shirt, but yeah. You’re a good lad, Harry, you can stay,” Niall laughed again, rolling back to his table and putting his headphones back on.

Louis thought if he rolled his eyes one more time at Niall’s stupid jokes he’d probably get a headache from that, so decided not to pay him any more mind.

“Thanks for the t-shirt and the not-lube gel.” Still, he joked with Harry once again, not able not to take the piss out of the other man’s situation.

It was Harry’s time to roll his eyes and open a bigger smile, making not one but two dimples pop out on each one of his cheeks.

“Don’t mention it. Anytime you need anything,” he patted his backpack, “my emergency friend here might be able to help. I can’t count the times it has saved me from any critical situation.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks again.” Louis nodded in Harry's direction before turning away with the items he had borrowed close to his chest and making his way to the office’s door. He squeezed Niall on the shoulder, making the brunette lad look from his computer to Louis and stick his tongue out at him. “See ya later, Ni. Gotta face the Simon Cowell beast now.”

Niall waved him off and Louis shook his head, resuming walking. Before reaching the door, Louis threw a glance over at Harry one last time, only to see him watching him right back.

He had that puzzled expression on again, but at the same time a very soft and charming crooked smile on his lips.

Louis closed the door as he stepped on the hallway and stored that information, along with the rainbow pin on Harry’s bag and the lube story, adding the fact that Harry was a very handsome bloke.

There was nothing wrong in Louis taking an interest in Harry. He had helped him and had been kind and thoughtful and somehow, Louis had felt a connection to him, be it because he had gotten attracted to him, or because of that odd feeling of already knowing Harry and feeling so much sympathy for him. Louis still had to figure out what that was, but for the time being he could use the opportunity to get to know Harry better, and with him being Niall’s colleague, he figured they’d have lots of time for that.

Making his way first to the bathroom to change his coffee stained shirt into the one Harry had lent him, Louis braced himself to face Simon. He didn’t even know how long it had passed since he arrived at the office and with all the talk between Greg, Stan and Harry and Niall, but he figured all of that had only delayed him from the inevitable.

Simon’s office was at the other end of the long corridor and that seemed the longest and most shameful walk of Louis' entire life. He didn’t know what to expect from his boss when he faced him, but once he knocked on the door and Simon’s snappish voice answered, Louis was almost ready to receive a verbal warning or anything like that.

It turned out that Simon was less harsh with him than Louis had thought. He had scolded him, of course, for what he pulled on Thursday, but he didn’t prolong it much since he had already made his point about that to Louis. Louis apologised profoundly and guaranteed Simon that he would make sure nothing of the sort would happen again. He would focus on his job since he had a very important interview coming up and he would prepare everything for that to go perfectly so it would be ready for January’s issue. Simon seemed content with Louis’ commitment and sent him off only with a stern look as if to say “I’ll keep an eye on you, Tomlinson.”

Louis breathed relieved as he stepped outside and headed back to his own office, telling himself that he indeed needed to pull his shit together, paying more attention to everything he did as so not to screw up anything else. He didn’t know why things had basically turned upside down for him, but he wouldn’t let it drag him down. He had never been a quitter, so if it meant he had to work harder, then he would.

“That was the longest coffee of all history, ay?” Stan said as soon Louis stepped inside their office. Louis knew he was teasing, so he laughed along with his friend.

“Had a bit of predicament on the way and then thought it would be better not to stall too much to talk to Simon.” Louis shrugged, finally reaching his chair and sitting on it. He relaxed, letting his mind settle after everything that had happened since he woke up. He reached his hand to the monitor of his computer, turning it on at last when he spotted a mug sitting right beside his keyboard. “Did you bring me coffee?” Louis asked, not recognising where that was from.

“Oh, no,” Stan chuckled. “I was really confused by that, mind ya, since you said you were going to get it, but that new guy who’s working with Niall? He brought it for you. Does this have anything to do with your predicament?” He wiggled his eyebrows at Louis.

Now Louis was completely lost, because why would Harry bring him coffee?

“Er, possibly,” Louis coughed as he got the mug in hand, smelling the liquid inside. He then saw a small sticky note next to where the mug was, pulling it from his table to read it.

_To make up for the coffee you didn’t get._

_Told you I could always get another one_ _for you_ _._

_Styles x_

If anything, the note made Louis even more confused. He couldn’t deny, though, that having Harry flirting with him was not bad, not at all. But why Louis still had a feeling there was more to it, he didn’t know.

His previous thought came back to him, and Louis smiled to himself. Well, if Harry was up for some light flirting, Louis would very much like to engage on that as well.

He took a sip from the coffee, smirking as he noticed Stan still looking at him.

“Oh, will you shut it, alright?” Louis tried to keep a straight face. “Let’s get to work, we have loads to catch up.” He shook his head, trying to keep Harry’s thoughts out of his mind and finally pay attention to his computer and getting a start on his job.

Whatever this was, Louis would have time to figure it out, and oh how would he love that.


	4. Chapter 4

“Why isn’t it allowed to get pissed at noon on a workday, Nialler?”

Louis sighed heavily, taking a sip from his large Coke cup.

Nialler munched on his Big Mac, swallowing it before speaking. “It’s not that bad, Tommo.”

“Oh, no?” Louis almost spilt his drink as he slammed it back down on their table, irritated. “I just fucking lost the best interview of my career. I had David fucking Beckham right in my hands, Niall! And now he can’t, he simply can’t! I think that’s a fair reason to just get smashed.” Dejected, Louis shook his head, running a nervous hand through his fringe.

“It happens, Louis. That’s not the end of the world, you’ll have other opportunities.” Niall took a chip from Louis’ tray in front of him, eating it nonchalantly. “Also, even if you wanted to drink at this hour, you’d never get smashed,” Niall pointed out, reaching for another chip.

Louis slapped his hand away, giving him a warning look. “Well, apparently that doesn’t work with me anymore, not since that damn Halloween party.” He sighed again, grabbing the remaining of his own Bic Mac and taking one last bite.

“Hmm,” Niall nodded, finishing his own burger too, “that’s true. I still can’t figure out how you got so fucking plastered not to remember a thing that happened that night. Not to mention everything that has gone wrong since then for you.”

“Well, your guess is as good as mine, mate.” Louis sucked the rest of his Coke on the straw. “The universe could just give me a break, right, and let me have David Beckham featured on the magazine in January. I’m not ready to tell Simon I fucked this up.”

“Maybe don’t.” Niall sneakily reached out his hand to Louis’ tray again, stealing the last of his chips. “Not yet, I mean,” he continued after Louis’ confused look at him, “the meeting to settle the topics for January will be in two weeks, right? Until then, you can find a replacement for Beckham, I’m sure.”

Louis would like to believe in Niall’s optimism, but who could be a good enough replacement for one of the most important Britain’s sports icon? The news he received in his e-mail that Tuesday morning saying that _Mr Beckham, unfortunately, will not be available for the interview and photoshoot anymore_ shook Louis’ entire life and career. He’s had good featurettes with other athletes over the years, but David Beckham had been a long time dream coming true, only to be snatched away from Louis in the blink of an eye.

“I’ll have to work my arse off then ‘cause this has been in the works for months, I’ve been talking with his PR team for so long. Two weeks is no time at all for me to find someone else. With enough luck, I’ll get John Terry, who’s a fucking prick that has just retired. Simon will definitely have my head off if that happens,” Louis argued back, getting a napkin to clean his hands and mouth. “Are we done? Since you’ve stolen all my chips?” He gave Niall a pointed look.

Niall snorted, taking a last sip from his Coke. “Not the worst news to cover in an interview. He’s also the new coach up the Villains, right?” He stood up, gathering his tray. “And yep, all done now.”

“Assistant coach. Oh, so fucking interesting.” Louis rolled his eyes, following Niall along to throw away his rubbish and then heading outside the restaurant. “Anyway, I’ll try to find someone worth talking to. And you, any insight?”

Both of them stepped on the pavement again, the chilly and cloudy afternoon welcoming them. Their usual lunch break at McDonald’s hadn’t taken too long and since the restaurant was not so far away from Syco’s building, they still had a good few minutes to spare.

As they started walking, Louis then took his cigarette pack from his pocket to have a smoke before heading back to work.

“Oh, yes,” Niall replied enthusiastically, “actually, Harry helped me with that. The lad has such great ideas.”

“Yeah?” Louis asked with his cigarette already between his lips, struggling because of the wind to light it up.

“He suggested I could talk about Bohemian Rhapsody’s film and its impact on alluring new Queen fans, you know? The film will have already been out for a couple of months by January, so it can be a good analysis.”

Louis finally managed to get a drag from his fag, looking at Niall with an intrigued expression. “That’s actually brilliant.” Niall nodded at him in agreement. “Seems you got yourself competition, Nialler.”

“Nah.” Niall bumped Louis’ shoulder with his own. “He’s a nice lad, he’s just eager to help and to prove to Simon that he can do a good job to keep his place with us. Just yesterday he already came up with a Christmas playlist to share on Syco Music’s twitter throughout December and Liam gave him the thumbs up this morning.”

“Really?” Louis stopped in his tracks, taking the cig from his mouth to blow the smoke away, lowering his left hand so the smoke wouldn’t go into Niall’s direction. “And he’s been here just for a day? Fuck, the bloke’s really committed.” He leaned against the wall of the building they were walking in front as so not to stand in people’s way on the pavement.

“He’s good.” Niall shrugged stopping right beside Louis. “He’s come as a good help, that way I don’t get overworked. It was about time Simon saw I couldn’t handle the online content and the magazine’s at the same time.”

“I never understood why you were the only one with no ass– ouch!” Louis cut himself off as he suddenly felt a strong sting on his left thigh.

Niall looked at him with a puzzled expression and Louis quickly took a look down at himself, only to see that he had his cigarette burning a hole through his trousers.

“What the fuck!” He exclaimed and lifted his hand away from his own body, throwing the cig on the ground and desperately rubbing his other hand over the hole, where he felt his skin had gotten burnt.

“Are you alright?” Niall asked, furrowing his brows in concern.

“Fuck, no.” Louis could feel his eyes getting teary from the pain. It didn’t seem that the cigarette had made a serious bruise, but still, it was hurting. “This is ridiculous, how can a fucking cigarette burn jeans, Niall, what the hell.” He led his thumb to his mouth, licking it to get it wet so he could press it against the burned area.

“You’re not having your best day today, Tommo.” Niall chuckled and Louis sent him a furious glance.

“Only today?” Louis exhaled, annoyed. He shook his leg a bit to ease the feeling of the pain. “I don’t even wanna talk about it. Let’s just get the fuck back to the office so I can take care of this.” He didn’t wait for Niall to respond as he resumed walking, feeling a sting on his thigh every time he moved his leg.

“Maybe Harry can help you out,” Niall said as they were already back in the building, on their way up to their floor inside the lift.

The suggestion confused Louis. “What?”

“You know, he helped you yesterday?” Niall pointed out. “He did say he had a few things in that bag of his if you needed anything.”

“Oh, right.” Louis considered and he had to admit that Harry’s relief pain gel had been a huge actual relief for him the previous day. He also had to give Harry’s t-shirt back, which he had brought with him to Niall's office when he’d come to call him for lunch, but Harry had already left with his sister for his own break. He reckoned that would be another good excuse to talk to the man again. “Yeah, maybe. Let’s see.”

The doors to the lift swung open and they headed to Niall’s office first. Louis hoped Harry would already be back from his lunch break too, and as Niall opened his door, there they found him, sitting by his desk and eyes fixed on his computer.

“Hey Harry,” Niall announced himself, “had a good lunch?”

Harry turned on his chair to face them. “Yeah, we went to that Indian restaurant just around the corner, it was very ni–,” it took a second for him to notice Louis stepping behind Niall. “Oh, hi Louis.” He opened a warm smile at him.

“Styles,” Louis waved in his direction. “Nice to see you’re already all settled and getting acquainted with the establishments around Syco.”

Harry laughed. “Yeah, Niall helped me with that,” he gestured to his table, “and Gemma knows the best places to have lunch, she’s been showing me around.”

“You should have lunch with us some time. We usually go to McD’s, but we know our way around other restaurants too,” Louis said, casually. He didn’t want it to seem like he was inviting Harry personally, but that was a great opportunity to include Harry in his circle along Niall so he could know him better.

“‘Course, that’d be cool.” Harry’s face turned soft even with the closed-lip smile he gave Louis. His dimple still popped out, though, making Louis smile back at him.

He could feel Niall’s knowing look between the two of them but he decided to better ignore it.

“Before I forget,” Louis cleared his voice, breaking eye-contact with Harry and reaching for the t-shirt he had left on top of Niall’s desk. “I’m returning you this. Thank you, for yesterday.” He took a few steps closer to Harry to hand him the piece of clothing.

“Oh, it’s alright. Glad I could help.” His green eyes glinted as he took it in his hand and looked at Louis, gently. Louis almost lost his breath at the sight.

“Talking about help,” Niall’s voice interrupted Louis’ thought of how beautiful Harry looked – his long hair was loose today, a few curls forming on the tips, making him look quite angelical. “I think you could help Tommo out here some more.”

Harry frowned, looking from Niall to Louis. “How so?”

“You see,” Louis let out a cough, “I might’ve screwed up my jeans and burned meself.” He turned his left leg a bit to show Harry the small hole in it.

“What’s up with you and keeping work clothes in one piece?” Harry joked, amused.

“Fuck if I know.” Louis shrugged. “It seems it’s becoming a habit.”

“For his luck, you have that big backpack of yours, right?” Niall approached them, patting Harry on the back.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” He reached out under his desk to fetch the bag, placing it on his lap and already looking for something inside it. “You said you burned yourself?”

“With a fag,” Louis answered and Harry snapped his head up at him, “my cigarette,” he laughed, explaining. “I was distracted and let it burn my trousers, anyway.”

Harry quickly lowered his eyes to Louis’ thigh and Louis tried to stop himself from feeling a thrill because of Harry observing his body. “It doesn’t seem to be that bad, but I have something for burns here. You don’t need new trousers too, do you?”

Niall snickered beside them and Louis rolled his eyes, but still laughed. “No, I think I’m good. If I put a plaster over the bruise, maybe it will make my jeans look fashion. It will match my jaw’s one.” He tapped a finger over the new Hulk sticky plaster he had on his face today, _again_.

Harry shook his head but gave Louis a sympathetic look before he got what was necessary to take care of Louis’ burn from inside his bag.

He handed Louis a small aloe vera gel, a few cotton gauzes, and a skin-colour plaster. “Sorry, no superhero sticky plaster, I’m afraid.”

“Suppose I’ll have to live with that,” he tsked, shaking his head. “Thanks, Curly. You’re my hero.” He winked at Harry.

“More like your guardian angel,” Niall chimed in.

Louis caught Harry’s cheeks getting flushed and he felt just a tad proud of making Harry flustered. “Don’t be so dramatic, Horan.” He elbowed Niall. “Harry’s just a better precautioned lad than us, his backpack is the real deal.”

Harry let out a high-pitched laugh. “Yeah, my best friend here.” He patted the bag. “If you ever need anything else, know we’re available, always. Already told ya.”

“Won’t forget about that,” Louis nodded, appreciating Harry’s solicitude, but not ignoring how it also sounded like he was implying something else. “I’ll go take care of this and I’ll bring your things over later. Thanks again.”

Harry zipped his backpack shut and smiled at Louis. “No worries.”

“Alright, now that we all have our bellies full and all bruises have been taken care of, let’s get back to work. Beat it, Tommo.” Niall shooed Louis away, pushing him by his back to head out of his office.

“Rude, Nialler. Never inviting you for lunch again,” Louis complained but started walking back to the door. Niall only murmured a “yeah right” and gave him one last shove. “See ya, Harry.” Louis waved his goodbye to him before Niall closed the door.

Despite still feeling like life was beating him up with all the David Beckham ordeal and his stupid burn, Louis laughed to himself before he headed to the toilets to deal with his bruise. He was starting to think having Harry around was not only convenient for his minor incidents but also that he really would like to spend more time getting to know him.

 

*

 

Louis was doing everything in his power not to mess up anything else or to have any more incidents, but it seemed that as the days followed, life was really not on his side.

He couldn’t wait for Friday to come along so he could finally enjoy some peaceful time outside of work and just leave all his worries behind because really, he was getting exhausted from bad thing over bad thing happening to him that week.

Wednesday had been one of the worst days for Louis since he had gotten the flu the week before. It was suffice to say that it was completely his fault, there was no one else to blame (except Clifford, maybe) since who in their right mind would pick up the contact lens that had just fallen on the bathroom floor and that their dog had licked for about two seconds and decided that putting it under the water and wearing it was completely normal? There was a time Louis wouldn’t be that person, but apparently, he hadn’t thought better of it and did it anyway, which resulted in his right eye itching like a bitch. He decided to forego his lens that morning and went back to his old glasses, which weren’t as good as Louis remembered them to be since he hadn’t worn them in a few good years once he started on the contact lens, so probably his prescription was outdated, but that would have to do for that moment.

With a few bumps on the way to work because of his poor vision and his eye begging to be taken out of his face, Louis finally made it to Syco’s building. People were giving him a few weird looks, but Louis reckoned it was probably because they had never seen him wearing his glasses. That was his initial thoughts until he bumped into Harry on their floor.

“Louis, are you alright?” Louis was probably getting tired of that question, but whenever he heard it, he knew it couldn’t mean anything good. And this time, with Harry’s concerned expression, it really didn’t seem it was something he should ignore.

“Hello to you too, and yeah, I guess so, so far. Except for this fucking itching in my eye.” He led his hand to his right eye, forgetting for a moment that he was wearing his glasses and knocking it off his head. “These aren’t helping either.” He sighed.

“Louis, your eye… It’s… did you scratch it on your way here?” Harry took a step closer to Louis, getting his glasses from the floor and handing them back, with a cautious look on Louis.

Louis started to feel a bit anxious about Harry’s reaction. “I tried not to, why?” He took his glasses in hand but didn’t put them back on again, trying to squint at Harry, but that only made his eye itch more.

“It looks like you just smoked weed. Like... A huge amount.” Harry pursed his lips, and Louis noticed he was really concerned for his well being.

“Oh fuck, maybe I need to wash it, it’s hurting like a bitch.” He shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I think you could use some eye drops in there.” Harry bit down on his bottom lip. “I have a small bottle in my backpack. Let me get it for you, I’ll meet you in the toilets.”

If it wasn’t for Harry that morning, Louis probably would’ve lost his eyeball for being so careless. Harry was happy to help and was very careful when he assisted Louis to clean his eye. Louis wondered why the hell Harry always seemed to have everything inside his bag and Harry explained that as for the eye drops, hay fever had always been a problem for him, and so they always came in handy, not to mention the fact that he himself also wore glasses – which was a surprise to Louis even though he remembered Harry had briefly mentioned it the day before, and Harry said that for years he had tried to change to lens but they would always bother his eyes, but with the new job he wanted to try them again and surprisingly he had no problems anymore.

As for the other things, Harry told him again that he used to be involved in many incidents and embarrassing situations that led him to be more cautious and carry things that could help him in no time. That’s why Ruth – his backpack (Louis had tried not to laugh at that, but when he noticed Harry hadn’t taken it to heart, only laughing along, with a smile that showed those delicate two front teeth Louis had started to find too endearing, Louis actually thought it was cute that Harry had named it) – had become his best friend and real lifesaver.

“Now though, I’m almost thinking I should hand it over to you in some kind of rite of passage for clumsy and unlucky lads,” Harry joked, as they walked back to the main hall, “since it seems you need it more than I do. Somehow, things have fallen into place for me.” He shrugged and Louis smiled at him but wishing he could just have that bit of luck Harry had suddenly gotten ahold of.

Not that he believed it was actually luck, or in his case, the lack of. He still didn’t know what was happening to him and why the universe decided November was going to be the worst month of his entire life. For Harry, though, things were quite the opposite – he had just found a great job, was doing so very well on it, apparently hadn’t had any of the disastrous incidents he used to have before and also, had everybody loving him and falling at his feet at the office (Louis was one of those people, only hoping Harry would somehow notice that his intentions weren’t just as friendly as everybody else’s – and if the way Harry always helped Louis and seemed to genuinely care about him, and the way he looked at Louis with those doe green eyes were anything to go by, then Louis supposed he was doing a good job at it and in at least one thing the universe was on his side).

As much as Louis liked Harry, though, he couldn’t help feel a tad jealous of how things were going well for the other man.

On Thursday, Louis was so frustrated beyond reason that he didn’t even feel as enthusiastic as Niall and also Liam had been for Harry.

Harry had been put to work on a daily music recommendation thread on Twitter, something Niall had tried to do for a few months but had failed. Now, as there was somebody else to work with the music social media, Niall thought it was a good project for Harry to take over and Harry embraced it, opting to do it with artists that hadn’t had their breakthrough yet. Niall had told Louis that Harry was very much into the underground, alternative and independent music scene and he had a few names he’d like the public to get to know better. And so, as he worked on it, the first tweet he had shared about a singer called King Princess turned out to be one of the most retweeted ones from Syco’s Music Twitter account – the girl herself had retweeted it and her fans took it in their hands to make it trend. It did, catching a lot of people’s and other entertainment accounts’ (including BBC Radio) attention.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Liam had said when they were coming back from lunch together, along with Zayn. “Our Twitter mentions were blowing up. I mean, since Harry started the thread, it’s been one of the things that have had the most repercussion in all our social media. Simon is really content with that.”

“The bloke really came in the right time. Simon must not regret having hired him in such short notice then,” Zayn joined the conversation. “I mean, he had to have someone to make up for other people’s slip-ups.” He elbowed Louis. It was playfully, Louis could notice, but Louis wasn’t in the mood to joke around.

“Listen, it was one time!” He turned to Zayn, pointing a finger at him with a stern look.

Liam snickered beside Zayn. “C’mon Lou, no need to be so pressed about it. I didn’t let Simon know about that, but you outta pay attention to what photos you send me next time.”

Louis sighed, shaking his head and fixing his glasses on top of his nose, trying not to think about the stupid wrong photos he had sent Liam in the morning. He was supposed to select pictures from the Champions League matches that had happened the previous night for Liam to upload as the main ones for their recap tweets. Their photographer had uploaded it to the cloud, but Louis didn’t notice he had gone to the folder from two years ago. It was only when Liam pm’ed him asking what Cristiano Ronaldo was doing in Real Madrid’s photos that Louis realised he had fucked up (he decided to put the blame on his old prescribed glasses. Stan didn’t help much since he just kept on mocking Louis for his dumb mistake).

So, while everybody was patting Harry on the back for how well his tweets had been doing, Louis was sulking for his lack of professionalism and luck, apparently, since he still couldn’t get in contact with any of the footie players he had thought about to replace Beckham’s interview.

Friday then couldn’t come soon enough so Louis could forget everything else, looking forward to his usual happy hour with Niall, Zayn and Liam.

Of course, things wouldn't be so easy for him. As always, something, _anything_ bad had to happen to him, right at the beginning of his day. He wanted to find someone to blame for that because there had to be one. Who had left sachets of similar white granules next to each other on the small coffee table they had at the end of the hallway, making Louis put salt instead of sugar in his tea? Who had put salt on their coffee table since there was nothing in there that anybody could use the salt for?

Louis wanted to scream, right after spilling the gulp of tea he had just taken, for how frustrated he was.

“Wow there, Louis!”

Harry’s voice came from behind and Louis was happy he didn’t turn around before spilling his tea out otherwise it certainly would’ve caught on Harry.

Louis placed his tea mug on the table and reached for a plastic cup to fill with water to get the horrible salty taste out of his mouth.

Harry must’ve noticed his bad temper and approached him again, but this time cautiously. “Another rough morning?”

“I’ve lost count of them,” Louis puffed before he drank the water and finally turned to face Harry.

“What happened?” Harry furrowed his brows, looking from Louis’ cup of water to his mug.

“Some idiot left salt here and I accidentally put it in my tea, instead of sugar.” Louis rolled his eyes, pouring more water into his cup. He was sure he would have to brush his teeth because the taste in his mouth wasn’t leaving and he was getting nauseous from it.

“That must’ve been Niall,” Harry chortled and Louis could see he was trying to contain himself from laughing even more at the situation.

“What?!”

“He left late last night, I got to the office now and there was a plate of shrivelled chips on his desk. I think he might’ve left the salt here on the table.”

Louis looked incredulously at Harry. “You’re shitting me. Of all the places… I’m gonna kill Horan!”

Harry let out a small laugh, putting his hand on Louis’ shoulder. “I’m sure he didn’t leave it precisely for you, c’mon.”

It was clear Harry wanted to calm Louis down since Louis could feel himself become angrier and probably had his murderous look on.

Louis took a deep breath, trying not to let out his anger. At least not on Harry, the man had nothing to do with that. Actually, he was being so nice to Louis it was very hard for him to keep the tough stance.

“You’re right, no need to be so drastic.” Louis nodded, recomposing himself and smiling up at Harry, coyly at first. “I might make him drink more than usual tonight so he’ll have the worst hangover of his life during the weekend.” He knew there was a full mischievous grin on his lips now since it made Harry laugh out loud, clapping a hand over one of his thighs and squeezing his hand over Louis’ shoulder.

Making Harry laugh had made up for his horrible tea that morning, and as he fixed himself another cuppa (with sugar this time) and Harry also filled his mug with coffee to get ready to start the day, they made comfortable conversation on their way to each other’s office. Louis really enjoyed Harry’s company and help, he couldn’t deny it, even if it was after embarrassing moments. If that was the only way to get Harry’s attention all on him, then he wouldn’t mind making a fool of himself for a while.

But the thing was, as much as Harry was a bonus to his reversed luck, Louis was actually getting tired of everything going on. At least nothing major had happened for the rest of the day and when he finally met Liam, Zayn and Niall at the pub later that night, he could whine to his friends about how horrible and miserable he was feeling.

“It’s been a week, lads. I’m not sure I can take this anymore,” Louis complained as he drank from his pint.

The four of them were sitting inside a booth together in the crowded pub that Friday, each one with a drink in hand, already a few bottles in – and as promised, Niall with a couple more per Louis’ insistence (and pretence) on buying his friend celebratory drinks for his acquisition of a new writing partner.

“Over a week,” Liam pointed out, tilting his bottle towards Louis.

“Was that supposed to make me feel better, Payno?” Louis arched a brow at him, then sighed. He was already feeling dizzy from the alcohol and he had to remember himself that he couldn’t abuse like he used to before. It seemed the hangover from the Halloween party wasn’t going to be a one-time thing only. That damn Halloween party.

“You just have to really consider that something happened at the party for things to turn to shite to you, mate.” Zayn looked at Louis, his elbow propped on the table and his hand supporting his head by the chin.

Louis rolled his eyes. “You mean after you cursed me with your tarot cards.”

“How could Zaynie do that? He wasn’t even a real wizard,” Niall said, chugging his beer.

“I was the Wizard, Niall, oh my God. You’re so gone already,” Liam laughed, ruffling Niall’s dark hair from across the table.

“No, I mean,” Niall hiccuped, “if Tommo’s saying it was Zayn, he’s saying Zayn has some magical or dunno, super astrological power to control the stars and fate. He doesn’t, he was just wearing a stupid Aladdin costume.”

“Thank you.” Louis raised his bottle to toast with Niall’s. “That costume was just horrible.”

“I’m not even gonna go over the full on Leprechaun outfit. No wonder you can’t pull anyone, Nialler.” Zayn must’ve had kicked Niall from under the table, which made Niall raise his leg and knock his knee against it and in the process caused a few of the bottles to fall down on the table.

“The problem wasn’t with me. That whole party sucked. That’s why Louis got so plastered not even one hour in.” Niall tried to get the bottles in place again but was only making an even bigger mess, spilling more beer over the table.

Liam helped him, being the soberest among the four of them, taking the bottles safely away from Niall.

“Although something did happen,” Niall continued, knitting his brows and looking attentively at Louis, “‘cause you were gone suddenly and then I found you outside on the balcony just before you hit ya big noggin.”

Louis narrowed his eyes at Niall, pushing his glasses in place against his nose. “I don’t recall any of that.”

“You did.” Zayn patted him on his extended arm over the table. “Niall came to us asking if we had seen you but you were completely gone.”

The puzzled expression and the horror of the memory of his blackout that night took over Louis’ face completely. He nervously drank more from his beer this time.

Liam looked at him with some calm and worried puppy eyes. “What’s the last thing you remember, Tommo?”

“Ehm, I don’t know.” He shook his head, breathing in trying to force his brain to recall something. “I guess I remember coming inside with you lot, Niall ordering his pint, you two heading off God knows to where, the bartender handing me a glass of Martini and… that’s it. That’s all of it.”

“Do you think the bartender put something in your drink?” Liam’s concern was growing in his voice.

“He would’ve put it in all of ours if that was it.” Zayn shook his head.

Niall chuckled drunkenly. “I bet he was mad that you didn’t pay him attention and instead was looking over at the Zorro bloke.”

“Zorro?!” Liam, Zayn and Louis asked, alarmed, in unison.

Niall made a weird face at them as if his explanation was obvious. “Yeah, Louis was flirting with Zorro before he disappeared.”

“I was not.” Louis shook his head. He did not remember that, what the hell.

“Was so.” Niall nodded, taking his pint and trying to drink from it only to realise he had downed the rest of it already.

Liam was tapping his fingers against his chin, thoughtfully. “Could this Zorro person have done something with you?”

“I don’t remember anyone dressed as Zorro at that party.” Zayn took a gulp from his beer, also contemplative.

“I doubt anyone dressed as Zorro would’ve messed with me. And if I was flirting with anyone, I would’ve remembered that. If it was anyone from the office then, there’d be someone bragging about it.” Louis slouched his shoulder, leaning against his chair and picking on the label of his bottle.

“I’m telling ya, mate. You were. I’m sure this person had something to do with that. It wasn’t Zayn’s fault, you see.” Niall snatched Liam’s forgotten beer to himself, nonchalantly drinking it.

“Yeah, right,” Louis laughed humourlessly. “Explain to me how someone flirting with me would have caused me all this suffering. Everything that’s happened, happened to me and only me because of meself. This has nothing to do with anyone else.”

“At least you’re admitting that you have lost your fortune.” Zayn gave him a pointed look.

“I’m admitting to nothing,” Louis sighed tiredly. “I’m just saying I’m tired of being stuck in this never-ending hellhole and misery.”

Liam patted Louis on his back, sympathetically. “There’s something about this party we still haven’t figured out. I mean, it’s no coincidence Zayn read your fortune that night, something happened and then you started having bad luck.”

“It’s not bad luck, Payno, fuck off.” Louis slapped Liam’s hand away. “Stop this shit. It’s not a coincidence. You all liked to mess with me about this for fucking forever and it happened, whatever. No one’s doing this to me, my luck didn’t disappear or dunno, got replaced by something else. I’m almost convincing meself that life’s like this, some days they’ll taste like lemonade and others they’ll feel like razor blades, and so it goes.”

“Be careful with the razor blades not to cut yourself again, then.” Niall laughed out loud, pointing a finger to Louis’ face. He then sleepily slid his head against his arm on the table, closing his eyes and letting out a snore.

Zayn and Liam laughed and Louis rolled his eyes again, taking his beer and finishing it.

“Just consider this, Lou – something happened. Now you have to deal with it, or try to turn your fortune around and find it again so you don’t stay in this funk forever,” Zayn said as he slung an arm around Liam’s shoulder, bringing his boyfriend closer to him again. Louis saw Liam nodding in agreement with Zayn and place a kiss on his cheek.

Louis shook his head and waved them off, not wanting to dwell on the subject anymore.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He felt himself exhausted and his head throb when he got up from his seat. He knew the hangover would come and as much as he also didn’t want to deal with it, all that talk only made him want to forget this altogether, so getting a few more drinks was the best thing he could do for himself. “Anyone wants another round?”

“Cheers, Tommo!” Niall replied drunkenly, lifting only his hand, still with his head lying down on the table.

Louis smiled to himself before he turned around and headed to the bar. At least he was getting back at Niall for making Louis put salt on his tea. That he could totally put the blame on someone else.

 

*

 

Resigning himself to everything that was happening to him was the only way Louis could go through the following two weeks. It didn’t seem life was giving him any break and Louis would wake up every day already expecting something bad to happen, at any given time of the day, be it at home, at work or when he was out somewhere else, or be it anything minor or major.

Amongst the things Louis had to deal with (and just accept his streak of bad luck) were: getting electrocuted while changing a light bulb at his flat over one weekend; getting stuck inside the office’s lift one day when the power shut off suddenly; sitting on a freshly painted bench on a park while he was walking Clifford; being trapped inside the tube for over thirty minutes due to technical problems and therefore making it late to work; dropping his tea over a stack of printed magazines that were left by the hall which were going to be delivered to their sponsors as he was making his way back to his office; bumping into a wine shelf while grocery shopping and making most of the bottles fall on the floor and break (which almost prompted him to cry over the spilt wine, but he tried to contain himself in front of the rest of the customers); cutting himself with scissors while he was making a physical clipping gathering past issues of the magazine to figure out which players he could use to replace David Beckham (which he still couldn’t find – that was one of the things that were frustrating Louis the most); still having pickles in his Big Mac every time he went out for lunch even though he would explicitly tell them not to put it; knocking over a cabinet of stationary supplies and having Simon look him down as he had watched the whole pinnacle happen as he was walking down the hallway; getting his fingers smashed while closing a cab door; more often than not tripping over the carpet in his house; distractedly miss the entrance of Syco’s building and slamming his face on the glass door, and of course falling off his chair in his office.

“I think you should get yourself another chair, Lou.” Stan was looking unfazed at Louis on the floor, already used to Louis’ incidents, but still trying to refrain himself from laughing at his colleague.

“I think it’s time you shut up.” Louis shook his head as he tried to untangle his legs from the chair.

“Gotta be more careful, then. How many times has it been already? Five only this week? Must be some kind of record to fall every day, from Monday through Friday.”

Louis managed to stand up and put his chair in place again, reaching out for his bottle of water and threatening to throw it at Stan.

Stan flipped him off but moved to dodge and protect himself from Louis’ attack.

“Hey, Louis. Everything alright?”

Louis turned around just as he was about to take a step closer to Stan to slap him on the head when he noticed that it was Harry standing by his office door.

“You just missed the hundredth time Louis has fallen on his arse this month, mate,” Stan answered for him in a mocking tone.

Harry's eyes widened and Louis rolled his eyes, giving Stan the two-finger salute. “Fuck off.”

“You okay?” Harry asked again, this time with concern in his tone.

“Yeah, yeah. After a while, you get used to it.” Louis waved him off, fixing his glasses over his face. “Luckily, me bum can always cushion the fall.” Louis laughed cheekily at Harry, winking at him.

Harry’s cheek instantly got flushed and Louis was glad to see he had that effect on the other man.

He was also very glad to see Harry had stopped by his office. It had become a habit for Harry to be around Louis whenever something happened to him while at work. It was like Harry would be looking over him and always on alert to help Louis out, with his backpack coming in handy many of the times Louis found himself bruised or bleeding for one reason or another.

They had bonded over Harry sharing his anecdotes of embarrassing moments and incidents, like the many times he’d tripped walking down the street, would actually tumble around and fall face first on the ground; of how he had an inclination for always spilling any liquid he would be drinking on himself, especially if he was holding two things in both hands at the same time, getting mixed up and sometimes leading his phone to his mouth and a water bottle to his ear; or the time his trousers ripped right on his arse when he tried to crouch down to tie his shoes. Those stories would always make Louis laugh but also feel so sympathetic for Harry because he was aware of how one could feel when those sorts of bad things would happen. And so, they started chatting more during work or spending some breaks together. Harry had actually taken Louis’ invitation to have lunch with him and Niall more than once and they were developing a nice friendship from there.

And as Louis spent more time with Harry, the more he noticed how infatuated by him he was. Louis had already found Harry very handsome and attractive, and since day one he knew Harry was someone nice and caring. As the days followed, Louis got to really know him, finding out about his quirks, how funny and witty he was, his interests in music – sharing with Louis new artists and old ones Louis didn’t know about, telling Louis he had to listen to a few playlists and whatnot, also asking Louis if he liked his song recommendation of the day on Twitter – and other topics, finding out how involved he was in the LGBT cause and so on.

Louis really, really liked Harry and having an inkling that Harry liked him back was turning their friendship even more interesting, because Louis could joke around and flirt a bit, always making Harry flustered, but in a way that also made him flirt and engage back with Louis. It was fuelling something in Louis, an attraction and connection he had never had towards someone so fast, which he reckoned he could act on it soon enough.

“Some people are born with natural airbags, it seems,” Harry said back at Louis, with a smug smile on his lips.

Louis laughed out loud. “Twat.” He slapped Harry on the arm playfully. “So, were you just hanging around or do you want something? Is Niall bugging you? Need me to fight him for you?”

“Er, no. He actually went for lunch already. So I came here to see if you, hm, would like to grab something with me?”

The invitation took Louis by surprise for a moment. He was not expecting that. They had been subtly flirting, that was true, but he didn’t think Harry would be bold enough to ask him out to have lunch with him alone.

“Oh, yeah, right. He said he was meeting with his brother today. What about your sister, Gemma’s not free to go with you?” He didn’t want to sound rude, but he wanted to make sure Harry was truly interested in hanging out with him.

“Hm, no. She’s out having some kind of fashion business meeting with Louise.” He shrugged sheepishly, looking at Louis with a small smile and his eyes with an expectant green glint.

Stan coughed behind Louis and Louis knew his friend didn’t even try to make it sound like it wasn’t on purpose. He always picked on Louis whenever he and Harry talked and if Louis turned around, he would probably find Stan rolling his eyes from his chair because Louis just hadn’t said yes promptly.

“Guess we both got stood up for lunch.” Louis tilted his head in Harry’s direction. “If you want me to be your rebound lunch date, I’ll gladly join you. I was already on my way to my break, anyway.” He smiled nonchalantly at Harry as if he wasn’t cheering on the inside for finally getting to have some alone time with him.

“When he managed to, only Lord knows how, fall from his chair,” Stan said, mocking Louis one more time.

Louis took a deep breath and Harry laughed at their antics. “Alright, that’s it, we’re going. I’m not even gonna invite you, because you don’t deserve me being nice to you, Stanley.” He walked past Harry, putting a hand over his arm to lead him to walk outside the office.

“Enjoy your meal!” Stan shouted before Louis closed the door behind himself, not paying any more mind to his ridiculous friend and properly focusing on his lunch date with Harry.

That Friday, Louis decided a McDonald’s wasn’t the best option if he wanted to impress Harry. They agreed to go to for sushi, even though it wasn’t Louis’ favourite meal, but Harry seemed eager to go to the new place that had opened close to Syco, so Louis thought why not roll with it?

It was a pleasant lunch considering Louis only managed to spill soy sauce on himself once, couldn’t properly hold his chopsticks and let one of his sushi rolls fall on the floor, and that he almost choked on his shimeji.

Harry seemed too endeared by Louis and his clumsiness to even care about the mishaps, always being attentive with him, making sure he was okay and assuring Louis that everything was still going smoothly.

Smooth being the correct term of how they behaved over lunch, because the lingering looks, accidental touches and sly smiles they shared were very much indicating that neither of them was considering it only a lunch date, but an actual date without saying it. The conversation flowed so well, Harry kept telling Louis how he was enjoying his job and about new music and artist discoveries he had made this past couple of days, and Louis told him about his tiring search for a new football player to interview, but also how he liked to cover the matches and talk about footie in general.

They left the Japanese restaurant with little time to spare, their lunch hour gone by in the blink of an eye with how much they were engrossed with their conversation and with each other.

“Do you mind if I stop for a smoke?” Louis asked as he stopped in his tracks on the pavement, looking at Harry to gauge his reaction.

Harry scrunched up his nose and shook his head, standing right beside Louis. “Hm, no. It’s fine. Go ahead. I’ll just stay a bit behind ‘cause the smoke gives me allergy.”

Louis glanced from the cigarette pack in his hand to Harry’s downcast eyes. “Nah, it’s okay. It can wait a little longer.” He shrugged, pocketing the pack inside his thick denim jacket again.

“Don’t stop on my account, please. Really, I don’t mind.” Harry gave him a lopsided smile.

Shaking his head, Louis got closer to Harry again, placing a hand carefully over Harry’s arm. “But I do, because we’re keeping each other company and it would be rude of me.” He squeezed Harry’s bicep over his beige cashmere coat to assure him, and Louis could feel Harry inhaling deeply. “Also, I like keeping you close.”

He wasn’t even ashamed of the lame line he had let out, but Louis knew it had taken effect on Harry when the other man opened a bigger smile at him, placing his hand over Louis’ on his arm, keeping the contact for longer than it was necessary before he spoke.

“Me too.”

It was Louis’ time to breathe in, feeling a shiver go through his body. He instinctively took another step closer to Harry, breaking the personal space between them.

Harry’s eyes were inviting, just as his lips were as he licked over them, nervously, and kept looking at Louis, running his eyes from Louis’ blue ones to his mouth.

There wasn’t any more doubt for Louis of what was about to happen. Both of them wanted it and it would just take Harry leaning down or Louis taking another brief step closer for them to meet each other in the middle and finally kiss.

The anticipation was consuming Louis and as Harry lowered their hands, intertwining their fingers, Louis knew that was the cue both were waiting to make the move.

Obviously, the universe thought that wasn’t the right time for it to happen.

Just as Louis was about to gather the courage to close his eyes and move his other hand to reach out to Harry’s face, they heard a screech of a meow that scared them off instantly, making them jump apart from each other.

Louis looked down to see a flash of a black cat run past between them and he cursed under his breath. There wasn’t a reason for Louis to believe in superstitions, but he damn well knew something like that couldn’t be a good omen.

“Er, sorry,” Harry said, breaking the awkward silence the cat had left between them. The hand that held Louis’ for a moment was scratching nervously the back of his neck and Louis knew the moment was lost.

He let out an awkward laugh, taking off his glasses and scratching over his eyes. “It’s alright.”

There was a loud crash sound that made Louis snap his eyes open again, putting his glasses back on and looking at the direction of where it had come from. Harry turned to see what was going on too and that was when Louis saw that the same cat that had interrupted them had knocked over a few cardboard boxes and rubbish bags that were on the pavement in front of the Japanese sushi place.

Both Louis and Harry laughed at the mess as people from the restaurant rushed to inspect what had happened. Harry looked back at Louis, giving him a small apologetic shrug.

“Shall we go back?” Louis opted to say because even if he wanted to get back to the moment he and Harry were having just minutes before, he knew the spell had been broken between them. Not to mention the fact they were just about to be late for work.

“Yeah.” Harry nodded, resuming walking beside Louis.

Louis only hoped they wouldn’t become awkward with each other after that because he didn’t want to ruin his chances with Harry. If life, fate, the universe could give him only one good thing, he just wished that it could be Harry, _please_.

If the way Harry kept bumping his shoulder with Louis’, brushing their arms and walking so close to him as they made their way back to Syco was anything to go by, then someone out there was listening to some of Louis’ prayers.

 

*

 

“So, I was doing a bit of research,” Liam informed, scrolling through his phone as once again he, Louis, Niall, and Zayn found themselves at the pub later on Friday night.

“About what?” Louis had a guess of what Liam might’ve been talking about. He had just told them about his missed opportunity of kissing Harry and also the other few predicaments he’d had during the day. He sipped his beer, trying not to pay too much attention to Liam, though.

“See, I couldn’t get it outta my head everything that’s going on with you.”

Louis snorted, because yeah, that was exactly what he had in mind Liam would say.

“Were you finally able to read Tommo’s birth chart?” Niall chimed in, sounding over enthusiastic.

“As if Louis would allow us to know more than the fact that he’s a hell of a Capricorn.” Zayn shook his head dismissively beside Niall.

“That’s not it,” Liam interjected their exchange. “I just kept trying to complete the puzzle and I think I finally cracked it. If you believe in it, that’s it.”

Louis passed a hand over his face, lifting his glasses tiredly. “At this point, I’m just about to believe in anything. If you told me Harry Potter was fucking real, I’d buy it.”

Niall let out a squeal and Louis gave him the finger as he saw Zayn smugly smiling at him.

“What did you find, Payno?” Niall scooted closer to Zayn, trying to steal a look at Liam’s phone.

“Here’s the thing,” Liam started, eyes fixed on Louis. “There are many mystical things surrounding Halloween, many believe it’s when mystic and astral powers and entities are more prone to act over us. I already said I don’t believe it was a mere coincidence the cards you had taken from Zayn’s deck on that night.”

Louis hummed, just to show Liam that he was still listening, but in reality, all of that just sounded like a load of bullshit for him, anyway.

“So, I looked to see if there was anything specific about this year’s Halloween night,” Liam continued, tapping on his phone.

“It was a full moon night, wasn’t it?” Niall asked with excitement all over his Irish accent.

“You almost sound as excited as Liam when he made this connection too. Only, he was giving me a blowjob,” Zayn said nonchalantly, taking a gulp from his pint.

Liam smacked him on the arm and Louis rolled his eyes. “Please, spare me from the details. But what the fuck, Liam?”

“Not my fault I had an epiphany, okay?” Liam shrugged, sounding a bit embarrassed but opening a small and not so discreet smile at Zayn.

“You guys are gross.” Niall made a motion of fake-puking. “Anyway. So yeah, it was a full moon along with Halloween and…” He gestured with his hand for Liam to continue.

“And as one knows, the full moon has a huge amount of energy, and I think on that night, it was amplified due to the energies of Halloween,” Liam pointed out.

“You do realise you sound like a lunatic talking this shit, right?” Louis reclined against his chair, shaking his head because really, all of that was nonsense.

“Just hear me out, Louis. I’m not making this up, there are researches on how the moon can influence what happens around us.” Liam sighed tiredly, probably noticing how reluctant Louis was to all of this. “Explain it to him, Z.”

“Oh, so the Mysterious Z will finally unleash all his astrological power and knowledge on me?” Louis laughed mockingly.

“Shut up, you dickhead.” Zayn tried to flick Louis’ ear but Liam was sitting in between the two of them and held Zayn’s hand out, lacing their fingers together on top of the table. “What Li is saying has a lot of foundation. It’s something that has been studied for longer than we can imagine and understand. So, basically the moon, especially the full moon has so much power it can influence our energies, for good as in it can increase your positive energy, or the other way around, wreaking havoc on you.”

“That’s because of the yin and yang thing, right?” Niall was intrigued, with both hands under his chin supporting his head as he paid attention to Zayn and Liam speaking.

Louis sneered. “Yin and yang.”

It was Liam’s time to roll his eyes at him. “Yeah, Ni, ‘cause even though we are talking about the moon, the sun also has great importance in all of this. In the full moon, the sun and the moon are in a natural balance, the perfect opposites, and ‘cause of that, they can cause tension and uncomfortable friction,” Liam let go of Zayn’s hand and slid a finger across his phone, as if reading from the screen, “but at the same time, it can be a great amplification of potential.”

Nothing they were saying made any sense to Louis. Actually, it was making him even more confused. “Right, and what the fuck does this have anything to do with me?” He rubbed the side of his temple under the arms of his glasses.

“Don’t you see?” Zayn questioned him and Louis shook his head indicating the obvious. “Do you remember the cards I read for you?” He huffed, pulling the tarot deck from his trousers pocket, taking a few cards from inside it.

“Now you carry this shit around with you?” Louis laughed incredulously.

“Liam made me, ‘cause he was certain we could convince you to understand what’s happened with you,” he explained and Liam shrugged beside him. “Anyway, that night you took the Wheel of Fortune, the Three Swords, the Moon and the Fate.” He selected the four cards and placed them over the table.

Louis was trying his best not to buy what they were saying, but with the cards laying in front of him, he started to connect the dots, as unbelievable as it sounded.

“I think we can understand what the moon card was implying considering the coincidence that we had a full moon,” Liam pointed out, actually pointing to the card. “Another fun fact I found was that on that night there was a sudden meteor shower, and this,” he pointed to the Fate card, “well, I think it also speaks for itself, right?”

“Now, putting together the Three Swords and the Wheel of Fortune, what we can take from this is that all the energies were pointing to take a turn on you,” Zayn spoke out the thoughts that were swimming inside Louis’ mind.

“Wait.” He raised a hand and shook his head, trying to make sense of all of that. “So you’re saying that I was just an unlucky bastard who happened to have his fortune read on the most mystical night of the year and that fate decided to turn my fortune around just because?” That still sounded completely unbelievable, as if the universe had just thought Louis had had enough of his good luck and life and made him lose all of that in one night.

“I think that even if I didn’t read the tarot to you,” Zayn answered, cautiously, “something was bound to happen. The cards only opened up your eyes to what was coming.”

“Bullshit, I don’t believe it,” Louis complained, drinking from his beer because at that moment only alcohol could help him understand what the fuck was going on.

“I don’t think it was an isolated act on or against you, Louis,” Liam called his attention, “‘cause I think the connection between the fate card and the meteor shower shows that something crossed your path, and maybe that was what turned everything around. Usually, fate is linked with a situation or a person.” He took Zayn’s hand in his again, probably seeking comfort from his boyfriend if Louis was about to snap at him too.

“The bloke Louis met at the party! The Zorro guy!” Niall slapped his hand against the table. “I knew he had something to do with it!”

Zayn snapped his fingers. “Exactly! This whole Zorro thing is too mysterious not to have any part in it.”

“But what the fuck would this Zorro person have done to me? What the hell, lads.” The more his friends talked, the more confused Louis got, although somehow, it all made sense to him too. That would explain a lot of things, but how, Louis still didn’t know.

“Yin and yang.” Liam grinned at him. “Fuck, it makes so much sense.”

“Enlighten me because I’m completely lost.” He drank some more beer. Louis reckoned it was probably all the alcohol that was making him dizzy and confused, but maybe it would also help him understand what the fuck they were talking about.

“Even I can understand this, Tommo. Look.” Niall took a sip from his pint too before he sat straight on his chair and cleared his throat. “You went to the party wearing your Doncaster kit, right? And what colour was it? White. What colour was Zorro dressed in? Black.”

“That’s… actually, it makes sense,” Zayn laughed as he tried to speak. “But I think it’s deeper than that.”

“Good observation, Nialler,” Liam agreed, giving him an okay sign. “But yeah, taking into consideration the amount of energy surrounding you and that night, Lou, I think it’s safe to say you might’ve attracted another sort of energy. The opposite kind of energy you had, get it?” He wiggled his thick eyebrows at Louis.

“You’re saying Zorro guy was my opposite as in…?”

“As in he probably didn’t have as much luck as you, and when you two interacted, something shifted between you. Remember, the Wheel of Fortune? Fate? Your life and fortune taking a twist, completely turning around? The Three Swords and the Moon? Times of uncertainty, pain and unexpected events?” Zayn explained, retelling what those cards had meant for Louis.

“Genius!” Liam smacked a loud kiss on Zayn’s cheek.

And it was as clear as day for Louis now. It all made sense. Fuck, he couldn’t believe all those things actually made sense. His friends couldn’t possibly be messing around with him like that, it would take too much time and energy to pull such a prank on him. There was only one explanation and it made total sense.

“Fuck.” Louis took off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath, not quite of relief, but of desperation.

“We cracked it, lads!” Niall cheered, lifting his bottle to toast the others, but Liam and Zayn only shook their head at him in a warning that Louis hadn’t taken the news so well. “Or not.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, then? ‘Cause I don’t remember a thing that happened that night, much less what happened between me and this Zorro guy, who apparently has taken all my luck away. Vigilante my arse, that guy is clearly a bandit!” Louis tried to joke, but it came out weakly. He couldn’t believe his own lack of luck at that moment.

“That person might or might not have your luck.” Liam grimaced, taking his beer in hand and drinking from it after long.

“And how do I know that? Fucking hell, you guys don’t even know who he was.” He shook his head, putting his glasses back on. “I’m pretty sure if it was someone from Syco, there’d be gossip about it, or at least of me and that person together... I– fuck, how do I go about looking for my own luck if I don’t know who took it?”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask around.” Niall tilted his bottle into Louis’ direction. “Someone might’ve seen that bloke around, I certainly did, but I just don’t know who he was. If he was at the party, it means he knew somebody from there or from Syco.” Niall downed the rest of his pint and gave Louis a sympathetic look.

“That’s ridiculous.” Louis puffed, playing with the cap of his bottle that was on the table. “I can’t just ask around about that.”

“You prefer to never know what happened and to keep being miserable and complaining about every bad thing happening to you, or to solve this once and for all?”

Zayn’s question was serious and Louis didn’t have much to ponder about it. He was tired, just fucking tired of this hell of a month he was having. Nothing was working in his favour and even though he tried to resign himself to it, Louis didn’t know how much he would be able to take it without breaking.

He didn’t know how people like Niall and Harry who would constantly tell him of all the bad things that also happened to them only to comfort him, how they managed to deal with that for so long.

Louis thought about Harry then, considering how even though Harry had been one of the few good things that happened to him since the Halloween party, how maybe things wouldn’t work out for him if someone else had his luck and was hindering his chances with Harry.

Whoever took his luck was preventing Louis from having happiness in his life again (and also thrive at his job, Louis was certain the whole David Beckham thing was related to all this shit happening to him), and that he wouldn’t tolerate.

“Right,” Louis said, confidence filling him. “I’ll go find this damn Zorro person even if it’s the last thing I have to do. That’s just my luck and nobody else is allowed to have it!”

“Cheers, lads!” Niall raised his bottle again, finally receiving the approval from the others to have a toast. “We’re gonna catch this luck-stealing bandit!”

Liam and Zayn shared a soft look between them as they drank from their pints before smiling openly at Louis. Zayn enveloped his boyfriend and Niall by the shoulder in celebration and Louis nodded at his friends, feeling hopeful again for the first time in awhile.

He had to start somewhere, and even if everything his mates had just told him still sounded nonsensical to him, he had to leave his skepticism behind and admit that sometimes, life and fate worked in or against people’s favour. It was better to believe in that than to be forever stuck in the misery Louis found himself in. He needed to turn his luck and fate around again and he was confident that soon he would have his life back to normal, finally.


	5. Chapter 5

There wasn’t much Louis could do to find the person who apparently had stolen his luck over the following weekend. He’d have to wait until Monday came along to finally start his quest to find out who that Zorro guy was (he seemed more like a ghost than a masked vigilante by this point). That didn’t mean, though, that the wait wasn’t a painful one, just as all the previous days had been since that doomed party.

Louis was already getting used to all the predicaments that would happen to him, but he was far from reconciling himself to the fact that his life would be that way for much longer. Still, when he woke up Saturday to Clifford tearing apart his favourite pair of Vans, he didn’t have it in him to be mad at his dog, or on Sunday when he realised he had smoked a whole pack of cigarettes already and had to buy another one, only to find out when he got home that he had lost it somewhere along his way back from the newsstand around his flat’s corner, and then going out again to buy another one and letting it fall on a puddle by the curb, he reckoned it was better to give up smoking for that weekend or doing any more effort to accomplish anything for the rest of the day.

That mentality and the lack of nicotine made things a little more unbearable for him, but he managed to get by the rest of Sunday and prepare himself to look for his luck thief first thing on Monday morning.

“Stanley!” Louis had barely stepped inside his own office when he announced himself, heavily placing his satchel on top of his desk with a loud thud.

“Christ, Louis! Good morning to you too,” his friend replied, with a hand over his chest trying to calm himself, turning on his chair to face Louis.

“I have a question.” Louis wasn’t going to beat around the bush, he just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. Stan hummed as he furrowed his brows, lost at what Louis was playing at. “You were at the Halloween party, right?”

Stan let out a huffed laugh. “Your hangover was so bad you don’t even remember?”

“I– well, sorta, but I just want to confirm. Were you?” Louis shot him a pointed look with an eyebrow raised.

“Yes, ‘course. Don’t you remember us talking about my Popeye costume?”

“Right, right. That’s true, awesome costume idea provided by me. So, you didn’t decide to change it last minute to, I don’t know… a Zorro costume?” Louis squinted his eyes. Not that he thought Stan was the Zorro guy, because nothing had seemed different about Stan over the course of the past weeks if Louis thought about it, which probably meant that he hadn’t stolen Louis’ luck somehow. He needed to be sure, that’s what.

“Er, no?” Stan looked at him confused. “Are you looking for someone dressed as Zorro from the party?”

“Perhaps,” Louis clicked his tongue. “Do you remember seeing anyone, a bloke more specifically, like that by any chance?”

Stan frowned in deep thought, shaking his head. “Not that I’m aware. Why the sudden interest in this Zorro person after all these weeks though?”

Louis took a long breath, looking for a way to explain it to Stan. “He might have something that belongs to me.” He gulped, trying not to sound too desperate or even ridiculous.

“Somebody stole you at the party?!”

“No!” Louis shook both hands in front of himself at Stan’s alarmed question. “It’s… I don’t know what happened, really, but I know I need to find this person if I want things to go back to normal.”

Stan regarded Louis with a puzzled expression, leaning back on his chair. “I don’t know what you’re on about, but I think if you really want to find out who that bloke was, you’ll have to ask around the rest of the office.”

“Yeah, I know.” Louis sighed, already feeling tired and maybe just a tad hopeless. Why was it so damn difficult to find that guy? Counting himself, there were already five people who had no clue who he was and Louis had an inkling that not many more would know either.

He had to keep looking though. He wouldn’t give up that easily. That’s how, after he got a start on his day, at every little break he could have, either to get some tea or go to the toilets, he would stop by some colleagues’ office and ask them about the mysterious Zorro party attendee. Oli had no clue there was even a Halloween party to begin with, Calvin only recalled a Batman guy and he thought they were the same character and Luke had said he probably saw someone wearing all black with a big hat, but only briefly. Steve was the only person who came close to being of any help, saying that yes, he remembered someone dressed as Zorro. He was talking to some girl by the corner when Steve arrived at the party but he couldn’t tell who they were.

There was still hope, Louis thought as he came back from lunch and Niall said there were still many other people he could ask and if Steve saw the guy, then probably someone else did too.

Just as they were stepping outside the lift, Louis saw Logan – Zayn’s web designer colleague, whom he had hooked up a few times. Not that Louis wanted Zorro guy to be him, but he could totally envision the tall and broad blond guy wearing a costume like that.

“Hey, Logan!” He called, trotting to catch up with him.

“Louis, long time no talk to you, man.” Logan opened a wide smile as he stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Louis, and Louis forgot for a second why he had called things off with him. But as soon as he took another step closer to him, he remembered – the lad stanked, and well, that would never do for him. Still, he had to ask, only to know if he saw Zorro guy around.

“Yeah. Thought I’d see you at the Halloween party.” Louis asked not so subtly.

“Smooth,” Niall said behind him in a cough and Louis almost elbowed him in the stomach.

Logan smirked at him. “Heard you’ve been asking around a lot about the party.”

Louis didn’t know if Logan was hiding something or playing with him, but he had to dig deeper to figure it out.

“Yeah, I kinda drank too much and don’t remember much of what happened, but I know I talked to some guy, and I don’t remember who he was.” Louis fished for the information, smiling softly at him.

“I don’t think it’s him. The bloke I remember was tall and lean, I’d know if it was Stinky Logan.” Niall whispered and Louis could totally picture the disgusting face he made as he stood behind Louis.

“Hm,” Logan stepped closer to Louis and Louis had to hold his breath for a moment. He pitied Zayn for having to work with that guy every day. Louis tolerated kissing him a couple of times and that was enough to never do it again. “That’s why you don’t remember.”

“What?” Louis widened his eyes. That couldn’t be it, he had a feeling it wasn’t Logan either, but what if Logan wasn’t messing with him?

“We did see each other at the party when you arrived, Louis.” Logan’s voice was smooth and Louis remembered why he had thought he was flirty and a good hook-up at first. “I hoped I’d get to do more than that, and I think that was what you also wanted to when you smiled at me.”

Niall snorted and cleared his throat, probably trying to contain himself from laughing out loud.

“Did I?” Louis tilted his head, confused because he saw a lot of his colleagues at the party, and he probably waved hello at Logan out of politeness, but other than that, he couldn’t picture why Logan thought he would want anything with him again. Unless the man hadn’t gotten over Louis. Oh well, there wasn’t much he could do about that.

“This is why you’re asking about, you want to know what could’ve happened between us.”

Louis was perplexed at Logan’s presumptions. “I’m not asking about you, I’m asking about someone dressed as Zorro.”

Logan stood still for a second and Louis could see his eyes glint mischievously before he spoke. “It was me. I was the Zorro. Is that what you wanted to hear?” He puffed out his chest and Louis was not at all impressed at his attempt to try winning him over again.

“I doubt it,” Louis snickered. “I’m pretty sure–”

“Don’t play hard to get, Louis. If you need a Zorro, I’ll be your Zorro.”

There wasn’t even time for Louis to react to Logan’s stupidity before the man leaned forward and captured Louis’ lips in his, holding him by both his arms.

“The fuck, mate!” He heard Niall exclaim and the first thing he managed to do was shove Logan away.

That would’ve been enough if Logan hadn’t nipped at Louis’ bottom lip before letting go of him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Louis put a hand over his bitten lip, tasting the blood coming out of it. “You clearly are way over yourself if you think I’d be interested in you again. Get the fuck off unless you want me to file a complaint about you, you tosser.”

“I– fuck. Please don’t, I’m so–” Logan mumbled, scratching a hand over his trimmed short blond hair.

“What’s going on here?”

Harry’s alarmed voice came from down the hall and Louis looked behind himself to see the other man walking out from the lift.

“Just beat it, Logan, you fucker. Or you’ll never hear the end of this.” Niall stepped up, making a motion to go after Logan and the man shook his head, completely terrified and walked away as fast as he could, disappearing into the hallway.

“Hi, Harry,” Louis said, chewing on his lip trying to make it stop bleeding.

“That doesn’t look good.” He walked closer to Louis and Niall, indicating between them and the direction Logan had headed out.

Louis breathed in. “Just a fucking prick who thought I’d still want to kiss him.”

“He did this to you?!” Harry pointed to Louis’ lip and Louis nodded. “What the fuck.”

“Indeed,” Niall agreed. “I don’t know why you engaged with him, Louis. You knew he was playing with you.”

Louis rolled his eyes as he ran his tongue over his lip. “I had to try, didn’t I? Anyway, now we know it wasn’t him or that he even knew who I was talking about.”

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked, intrigued.

“You really don’t wanna know.” Niall waved him off and Louis shrugged.

Harry was still confused but seemed to leave whatever was going on at that. Louis didn’t have time to explain it to him, though. Not there and then anyway.

“You better put some ice there.” Harry looked softly at Louis, making a compassionate feeling run through him. “Dora must be in the kitchen, we can ask her for some.”

“That should work, yeah.” Louis nodded and if he really was brave enough, he would’ve thrown a cheesy line such as “I think you should kiss it better” but he didn’t know where he and Harry stood after their almost kiss last Friday. They hadn't talked about it or acknowledged how they felt for each other, but Louis could see there wasn’t any resentment from Harry’s part since he still seemed to care enough about Louis to help him after an unsolicited kiss gone wrong.

As they walked to the kitchen to deal with Louis’ injury, Louis reckoned it was better to leave his quest behind for the day. He had talked to enough people already and haven’t gotten anywhere, so interrupting others people’s work and possibly being at risk of suffering any other incident wouldn’t help him much more. He would leave it for the next day, sleep on what he had gathered and maybe then he would try to approach it differently.

Yeah, that would be better.

 

*

 

Tuesday then, while still trying to find a substitute for David Beckham’s interview (not that he couldn’t find any football player, it was that he couldn’t find anyone interesting enough and really, he had joked about it, but the only available and willing one was John Terry, which his PR had thought an interview right after his retirement would be great, and Louis was just dreading to answer them and have to settle with him. That wouldn’t do, nope), Louis decided to do something different for the search of his Masked Vigilante/Luck Stealing Bandit. Nothing more appropriate for the situation than a “Wanted” type of poster to hang around the offices on their floor.

Stan had laughed at him for searching images of people dressed as Zorro on the internet to create the poster, but Louis had ignored him while he dug through Google Images trying to find the perfect one for it.

What Louis hadn’t taken into account was the fact that most of the pictures were very peculiar, on the verge of looking straight out of porn. How could a Zorro costume even be used for porn, he didn’t need nor wanted to know.

Unfortunately, as everything else lately in his life had been, Louis ended up clicking on a photo that led him to an actual porn website.

“Oh shit!” Louis cursed as he tried to close the tab of the website, but loads of pop-ups appeared on his screen and then suddenly his monitor went all black. “No! Fuck, no!”

“Alright there, Tommo?” Stan asked from his desk.

“If you laugh at me one more time, I swear I’ll throw you out of this window, Lucas!” Louis said, gritting his teeth and inhaling in and out nervously. “I think I might’ve fucked up my computer with virus… from a porn website.”

Stan opened and closed his mouth, either trying to find what to say or to refrain himself from laughing. Finally, he decided to shake his head and turn his attention again to his own computer. “Good luck with that!”

“Tosser,” Louis murmured, irritated. He placed his head over his keyboard, took off his glasses and pulled at his locks in frustration. “Fuck this shit, really.”

The poster be damned, then. If it had caused him such a hassle, he wouldn’t bother with it again. He only hoped his actual work had been saved to the cloud, otherwise, he was one step closer to throwing himself off the window.

The IT assistant came to check on Louis’ computer and by then, it was already lunchtime. Louis didn’t know if he was glad or not that Liam and Zayn had agreed to join him and Niall that afternoon, because when he told them about the mishap with his computer, they all but took the piss out of him first, but then Zayn offered to create the poster for him, which Louis almost refused, already fed up with the whole situation. In the end, he thought it was better to take it over nothing, anyway. Any help to get him out of this black hole of bad luck was good enough help, so he let Zayn do it for him.

By the end of the day, the office walls had several “Wanted: Zorro from Syco’s Halloween party!” (with a drawing Zayn had made himself instead of a picture) posters all over them, but still, Louis had received no feedback on it since Zayn had put in big block letters for people to contact Louis if they had any information on who that person was.

He was leaving the office already when he spotted Harry standing in front of one of the posters.

“Styles,” Louis called, and he hadn’t expected Harry to be so startled by his voice. The man turned around quickly, almost snapping his neck and his eyes were wide when he looked at Louis. “Did I scare you?” He asked, concerned but very lightly.

“No, no. I was just…” He gulped and somehow Louis noticed he seemed nervous. “I just saw the poster and got lost in it for a bit. That’s a sick drawing.” He pointed back to the poster.

“Innit? Zayn made those. The bastard really knows how to draw.” Louis nodded and smiled, proud of his friend’s talent.

“Why are you looking for them?” Harry asked suddenly and Louis was taken by surprise by Harry’s short and a tad too serious question.

“I–” He started, feeling tired just to think about his situation. He took off his glasses for a moment, running the back of his hand over his eyes. He really wasn’t in the mood to explain it all after the day he had. He reckoned it probably would be a good opportunity to say “I can tell you all about it over a cuppa” and ask Harry out, but as much as he wanted that, to spend some time alone with Harry and maybe catch up from where they had left last Friday, Louis couldn’t find it in him to let Harry know why he felt like the unluckiest person on earth, nay the universe for the past month. “It’s a long story,” he decided to say instead. “Let’s just say this person owes me big time.”

Harry frowned deeply, biting down on his bottom lip, but he didn’t say anything and Louis found that very weird. Harry’s overall behaviour was very weird that day.

“Anyway, I have to go now, I’ve had another hell day and without my computer, I had to write down everything on a notepad and my wrist fucking hurts.” Louis signed, placing his glasses over his face again. “See ya tomorrow, Harry.” He smiled openly, trying not to look so defeated and also to see if Harry would react to him somehow.

Harry cleared his throat and managed to send Louis a small smile, one that reminded Louis of the first time they had bumped into each other – how Harry had seemed wary for a moment, his smile quite not reaching his eyes and confusion and uncertainty written all over his face.

“See ya, Louis.” Harry’s expression broke to a soft one again, like he hadn’t just been hard to read. He fixed the strap of Ruth over his shoulder and looked back to the poster on the wall.

Louis let him be, not ready to understand what was wrong with Harry. He would very much like to decipher him and know what was going on in that curly head of his most of the times, especially what he thought and felt about Louis.

He would leave that for another time, though, because he still had more important things he needed to crack.

 

*

 

The task at hand, though, turned out not to be an easy one.

Even with the posters around and with Louis directly going office by office asking his colleagues, the closest he had gotten to an answer as to who Zorro was, was when Steve said he had seen the guy around. Nobody else had contacted him due to the posters, nobody else remembered seeing said Zorro guy. The only people he hadn’t talked with had been the girls from fashion – Gemma, Harry’s sister, and Louise because they had been to a business trip that week, so there wasn’t a way for Louis to know if they knew about it. Louis was starting to get frustrated, not knowing what else to do.

At least he knew Zorro hadn’t been a figment of Niall’s imagination and he had actually been at the party, but the fact that no one knew who he was, that was making Louis climb up the walls.

“You should actually climb up,” Liam pointed out as they were back from lunch that Wednesday, having coffee before heading back to their offices and Louis was telling him about his frustration.

“What?”

“Climb up. Go to Syco’s Radio floor. I know there were people from the Radio that night at the party. If you haven’t found your answers here, maybe you’ll find there. There’s still hope.”

“Why didn’t you say this earlier, Leeyum?” Louis placed his hands over Liam’s face and left a kiss on his forehead.

“Ew, Tommo.” Liam shook Louis away from him. “You still have time before the break is over, I bet you’ll find people there. They never really leave the place.”

“Might as well just do it. Thanks, Payno.” Louis downed the tea he was drinking and rushed back to the lift to go up to the Radio Station on the top floor.

Louis met Greg James at the Radio floor just as he stepped out for the lift and the other man was about to go out for his own lunch break. For a moment he thought Zorro could be Greg, but then he remembered how he had been the first person he bumped into after coming back to work the Monday after the party and if he and Greg somehow had talked during the event, Greg would have mentioned it at some point into their conversation.

Talking with Greg, Louis found out he hadn’t even gone to the party and therefore couldn’t help with that, but then he said that maybe Scott Mills and Bebe Rexha could talk to him about it as they were just hanging around waiting for Nick Grimshaw to finish his broadcasting so they could have lunch together.

“Louis!” Bebe greeted, pulling him into a hug. “Long time no see you, babe! How have you been? Heard you had a bit of rough time at the last Syco party, eh?”

Louis laughed humorlessly hugging her back for a moment. “Then and after that too, it seems.” He shrugged. “Hey, Scott, how you doing?”

“Very well, mate,” Scott answered extending his hand out to Louis. “What’s that about your rough time?”

Louis shook it, greeting him back. “Just been waking up on the wrong side of the bed for a month, apparently. But hey, talking about the party, were you all there?” He gestured to the both of them and also Nick at the radio booth.

“Nick wasn’t. Syco’s parties are way too hyped for him, he says. He hates everyone and he won’t pretend to like Simon either,” Bebe chuckled, rolling her eyes as she tilted her head to Nick.

“I wasn’t either. I was on holiday, couldn’t make it. How unfortunate, right?” Scott said, hand over his chest, a faux-sad expression on his face.

“Oh, stop it, Scott! The party wasn’t so bad!” Bebe slapped him on the arm playfully. “There was lots of booze and people dancing, I enjoyed it a lot.”

“So, you were there?” Louis’ interest peaked.

“Yeah, ‘course! Guess you were a little too busy to notice me, also enjoying yourself, am I right?” She winked at him and Louis was lost for a second. What did Bebe know about Louis and the party?

“I’m– I wouldn’t know, to be honest,” he laughed nervously, running his fingers over his fringe. “The rough time started when I had too much to drink and ended up blacking out too soon.”

Bebe wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, I saw that, darling. It was bad. You left the bloke you were with worried for a second, but when Niall came to the rescue, he was already talking to no one other than Simon himself.”

Louis felt like he had stopped breathing for a second, because what? What was Bebe saying?

“I’m sorry, you saw me with a bloke?”

“Yeah, you don’t remember that?” She laughed. “Lou, I thought it hadn’t been that bad. Well, so yeah, I saw you coming with this fancy Zorro bloke onto the balcony and I saw you getting real steamy, shared a rather intense kiss right there.”

He had kissed Zorro-man? What the actual fuck! How could Louis not remember that? That made no fucking sense.

“You’re kidding, right?” Louis asked, laughing but only to hide his desperation.

“No, babe, I’m one hundred percent serious. I never like to drink much, ‘cause then I get to see other people getting drunk and it’s just so much fun, so yeah, I saw all of that go down with you.” She placed a careful hand over Louis’ shoulder. “You really don’t remember who you kissed?”

“No.” He shook his head. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

“Damn, mate. That sucks.” Scott chimed in, giving Louis a pitiful look.

Louis breathed in deeply, trying to gather the courage to finally ask Bebe what he had wanted to know for days now. “Do you happen to know who that Zorro bloke was, Bebe?

She shook her head sadly. “Sorry, babe, but no. All I know is what I just told you. Right after you bumped your head, Simon came to talk to him. I knew there was somebody else with them, but I was worried about you and I didn’t pay attention to them anymore as I tried to catch up to Niall but he had already left with you.”

Louis was starting to getting jittery. The one person who would’ve known who Zorro was – Zorro, who had kissed Louis! – was Simon Cowell and no. Just no. He wouldn’t go to his boss and ask who that person was. Simon would probably fire him right there and then. He knew Simon hadn’t been too happy about the posters once he emailed everyone on the floor, even though he knew it was Louis’ doing, alerting them about unauthorised warnings outside their Informative Bulletin Board and so Louis had to take them all down. So absolutely no, he wouldn’t ask Simon Cowell himself about Zorro guy. Although there was another person who could know, but that had just been another piece of the puzzle he had found but didn’t know where to place it.

“Louis, are you alright, mate?” Scott’s voice brought Louis back from his thoughts and he figured he didn’t have a good expression on his face by the look both Scott and Bebe gave him,

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. It’s just…” He shook his head, trying to gather all that information. “Are you sure Zorro and I were kissing, Bebe?”

Bebe nodded with a soft smile. “Yes, Lou. You two seemed wrapped around your own bubble. I found it so romantic, you know? Kissing under the full moonlight. I dare to say I saw a few shooting stars crossing the sky. Too bad you can’t remember any of it or the guy, I’m sure you’d be properly enamoured by now.”

Something clicked inside Louis’ brain, remembering the talk he had had with Zayn, Liam and Niall at the pub about what had happened to him that night. So yeah, it made sense. Fuck, it made even more sense now, because Louis now knew exactly what had happened.

Fucking Zorro had stolen his luck with a kiss.

“Thanks, Bebe. You can’t imagine how much you’ve helped me.” Louis quickly placed a kiss on Bebe’s cheek. “Scott, see you around! And please, tell Nick he’s such a hipster cliché, thinking he’s too cool for the good ol’ Syco parties.” He looked at Nick when the radio host turned around on his chair and faced the other side of the booth, spotting Louis. He waved at him and Louis sent him the two-finger salute playfully which left Nick with his mouth open before Louis rushed to the lift to go back to his floor.

He needed to tell the lads about it otherwise he would go insane with that information, but when he arrived at Niall’s office, it was still empty as he and Harry had gone together for lunch. He didn’t want to cross the whole floor and head to Liam’s and Zayn’s offices, so he thought better to send them a message later. But first, instead of going back to his own office, he decided to take a piss at the loo.

There was too much going on inside Louis’ brain. He didn’t know if he was excited or outraged at what he had found out and he couldn’t wait until he’d get back to his office to text the lads about it. As he was peeing, he took his phone from his pocket and with one hand only tried to unlock it, but the mobile fumbled in his hand and before Louis could hold it properly, it fell inside the urinal.

“Are you serious?!” Louis sighed tiredly, look up to the ceiling as he tucked himself in. “This is too much, even for me.” He shook his head and then faced his phone covered in pee. He wanted to cry, really, but he toughened up and sucked a long breath, grabbing a few paper towels to take the mobile in his hand.

He tried to clean it but there wasn’t much he could do. If he put the phone underwater it would ruin it even more, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to use his mobile anymore. So he covered it with as many papers as he could, washed his hand and left the toilet, cursing himself – no, that wasn’t his fault. He cursed Zorro-man, the whack-kissing bandit who stole his luck, because if it weren’t for him, none of that would’ve happened to Louis.

Going back to his office, he found a plastic bag to put his phone inside and turned on his computer again, composing an email to Niall, Liam and Zayn before he resumed his work.

_The fucking Zorro stole my luck with A KISS !!!! I HAVE TO FIND THIS BASTARD !!!!!_

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, he and the lads kept exchanging emails, mostly his friends trying to calm him down and saying that sooner or later the person would show up and Louis would solve his problems once and for all.

Louis had to be confident about it too, otherwise he wasn’t sure he could keep going on with his life the way it was. He hoped that, at least, for the rest of the day, nothing else would happen to him.

But once again, the universe was not on his side. Just as he stepped outside Syco’s building to go home, there was a loud thunder that came out of nowhere and suddenly it started raining, thick raindrops falling over Louis. As the unlucky person Louis now was, he didn’t carry an umbrella with him (he should’ve learned it better after getting the worst flu of his life, but of course he didn’t consider finding himself in a situation like that again) so that he could walk to the closest tube station. Nor could he even call an Uber with his phone since it was covered in pee. He could go back inside and ask for someone to call it for him, sure, but what were the odds that it wouldn‘t take fucking forever for it to arrive or that something would happen on the way? He reckoned he would have to wait anyway, so he took a step back, meaning to turn to the door again and when it suddenly opened, he was almost hit with a pink umbrella opening right on his face, but for a miracle he was able to step away from it just in time to avoid it.

“Louis! Oh my God, I’m sorry.” Louis realised it was Harry who was coming from inside the building, umbrella already open on the outside.

“Nearly killed me there, curly,” Louis joked because that was the only way he could deal with his misfortune those days.

“Didn’t see you, my bad.” Harry fully stepped on the pavement, holding his umbrella over his head. “Are you waiting for a cab?”

“Can’t.” He shrugged. “My phone is ruined, can’t use it to call a car. And I don’t have an umbrella to stand by the curb under the rain and I’d rather be caught dead before I catch another cold because of this stupid rain again.”

Harry didn’t say anything, only stepped closer to Louis making his umbrella cover them both.

“Thanks,” Louis chuckled when Harry smiled sheepishly at him.

“No worries. I know very well how not having an umbrella can suck.” Again, that feeling of sympathy and compassion came from Harry’s voice and Louis could barely contain himself from melting under Harry’s attention. “But what happened to your phone?”

“Please, don’t laugh.” Louis looked at his shoes, pulling the hem of his jumper sleeves to cover his hands. “I let it fall on the loo, so yeah, not using a pee-covered mobile.”

“Oh, no, that’s bad.” Harry shook his head, looking at Louis with doleful eyes.

Louis smiled weakly. “You tell me.”

“Once I let my phone fall in a puddle on the street, but if we’re sharing bathroom incidents, I almost peed on someone standing at the urinal next to me,” Harry chuckled, amused at his own misfortune.

“I don’t even wanna know how you did that,” Louis bumped Harry with his shoulder. “But yeah, this weekend I lost a pack of cigarettes on a puddle too. Guess we have a lot in common.”

Louis didn’t want to sound flirty, but standing so close to Harry was bringing back feelings from their almost kiss and he really, really could use something good at that moment and he figured kissing Harry would be just that.

That was, if Harry wanted to kiss him back. Louis wasn’t so sure anymore, though, because Harry let out an awkward laugh and cleared his throat before speaking again.

“What did Niall say about us? Unlucky Bastards United, right?”

Louis couldn’t help snorting at that. “Niall’s a twat.”

“He’s great. I like him,” Harry said softly and inhaled deeply. “So, I don’t think this rain is going away anytime soon.”

Louis looked around to notice that the rain had gotten heavier and fuck, he didn’t want to keep Harry’s company for too long just because he didn’t have a fucking umbrella.

“I’m sorry. I’m holding you back from going home. I guess I’ll just run to the tube station then. You can go, thanks though.”

Harry shook his head quickly. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Louis could see his green eyes getting shy and maybe a blush on his cheeks. “I mean, I don’t mind. I could walk with you to the tube, but I guess we’d get drenched, anyway. If you want, we could share an Uber?”

“Oh,” Louis let out a surprised tone, fixing his glasses on top of his nose. “That’s… that’d be nice if you don’t mind. It won’t take you away from your route, will it?”

Harry sagged his shoulders. “Not a problem.” He smiled, handing Louis the handle of the umbrella for him to hold as he searched for his phone inside his backpack.

Louis saw Harry opening the app and then asked for Louis’ address to add so Louis could be dropped off first. It said that the car would arrive in less than five minutes, so he and Harry settled to wait for it, talking a bit, but Louis could see that for some reason, Harry was somewhat tense and not his open self as usual.

He hoped this didn’t have anything to do with what was (or wasn’t) going on between them. Since the day before Louis had noticed Harry’s awkward behaviour towards him but he couldn’t pinpoint why that was.

A couple of minutes had probably gone by already, so the car should be there in no time and Louis wondered if it had actually been a good idea to accept to carpool with Harry after all. As he sighed, marvelling in his thoughts, he felt a strong wind cut through him, making the umbrella Harry hadn’t reclaimed back shift and almost fly away from his hold, and with that, he lost his balance and leaned against Harry.

“Wow, careful there,” Harry said as he held Louis by the arm.

Louis steadied himself and looked back at Harry to see him with such soft expression, his eyes glinting and a warm smile on his lips. It wasn’t Louis’ imagination that Harry cared for him and maybe felt something more for him too. He had told him so, that he enjoyed his company and he hadn’t shown Louis otherwise, still talking and spending some time with him every now and then (aside from the sudden changes in Harry’s expression sometimes, he considered). So, really, Louis couldn’t be reading any of that wrong and if he was bold enough to take another step closer to Harry, not taking his eyes off of him and noticing how Harry had breathed in, gulping and his eyes following Louis’ movement, then Louis knew he was right in his assumption.

“Glad you’re here to keep me on my feet then.” Louis knew he had the worst lines towards Harry, but somehow they didn’t scare the other man off, because the sincere smile Harry opened at him was everything Louis needed to completely enter Harry’s space and lift himself  up a bit on the tip of his toes to meet Harry’s face coming towards his.

Timing, though, was not on their side, Louis reckoned, because just then he heard the honk of a car horn right in front of them.

Harry quickly stepped away from Louis in a halt and looked towards the car. Louis took off his glasses to wipe off the few raindrops that had fallen on it while Harry checked his phone to see if the car that had stopped was their driver.

“This is ours, shall we?” Harry took his umbrella in his hand again and Louis nodded, putting his glasses back on and following him along to the car.

As soon as they sat on the back passenger seat, Louis let out a frustrated laugh, not quite believing his own lack of luck, because certainly, him never getting to kiss Harry was also linked to it.

“Are you okay, Louis?” Harry asked, brows furrowing as he looked at Louis after confirming to the driver the address and driving on their way.

“It’s just–” Louis shook his head in frustration. “I’m so tired, so fucking pissed, to be honest. Sometimes I think I’m doing fine, that I have accepted this as my destiny from now on, but others I can’t quite wrap it around my head that I’ve become this unlucky and that someone out there has my luck just because of a kiss!”

He said it without even thinking. Maybe for Harry, he sounded insane, but that was the absolute truth. Louis wasn’t doing okay, hasn’t been since the fucking party and now that he knew what had happened and still couldn’t figure out how to get his luck back, he couldn’t remain chill about this entire situation.

“Louis, I’m–” Harry tried to say with such pained expression it started making Louis angrier.

“Don’t feel sorry, Harry. This isn’t your fault. I’m tired of people feeling sorry for me. I’m tired of feeling sorry for meself. The only person who might not be sorry for me is that motherfucker Zorro who kissed me and now is living his best life, mocking the idiot whose luck he stole. He probably charmed his way to me, I probably fell for it, and if this was a normal situation I’d be endeared by being kissed, but I could hate him, you know? I think I do, yeah, I totally do. I just wish I could know who he was so then I could say that to his face.”

Louis spurted it all out, closing his eyes and rubbing both hands over them under his glasses. He could totally cry right there, but then he’d be making a fool of himself and even if he’d never get to kiss Harry because the universe didn’t want him to ever be happy again, he still had some dignity left.

Harry was quiet, probably letting Louis have his breakdown without interfering. When Louis looked back at him, though, he found Harry almost paralysed, both hands holding the closed umbrella between his legs tightly, his mouth closed into thin and nervous lips, chewing on them and his eyes looking from Louis to anywhere else in the car.

Louis shook his head. “I’m sorry, you must think I’ve gone mental. It’s just… yeah, it sounds completely nonsense, but since the Halloween party, things haven’t been easy for me. The lads and I came to some conclusions and I still can’t understand how that happened, but it’s the only logical explanation even though it’s anything but logical. Fuck fate and astrology and whatever other power is working against my odds.”

“No, it’s– it’s fine. I understand you’re frustrated. I remember you saying you didn’t use to be this unfortunate before.” Harry cleared his throat, looking back at Louis but still with his eyes distant.

“I never believed in this astrological bullshit, luck, fate and destiny, and the stars controlling our lives, you know? But after this hellish month I’ve had and all the evidence pointing that I indeed lost my luck and suddenly everything bad started happening, it’s kinda hard not to.” Louis sighed, looking outside the window where the rain kept falling hard. “I  didn’t understand how that could be possible, especially since I don’t remember a thing that happened at Syco’s party last month, but today I just found out I kissed somebody dressed as Zorro and it all fits. Obviously, I don’t know who he is, where he came from and how to find him again and I don’t think I can handle much longer of all this shit happening to me. And I’m just getting more and more frustrated and hating this person I don’t even know more than anything else.”

Louis hadn’t even noticed the car had stopped, it was only when the silence took over that he realised the engine wasn’t on, the Uber driver was absentmindedly tapping his fingers over the steering wheel and Harry had that pained expression again, licking his lips nervously one more time and paying attention to the rings on his fingers instead of Louis.

“I suppose this is your stop,” Uber Driver spoke, clearing his throat and Louis huffed.

“Sorry again for laying this all on you. You’re such a good lad for helping me out, Harry. Really, not only now but all those times before. I think I’d probably be dead or seriously damaged if it wasn’t for you and your miraculous backpack. And here I am, letting all my frustration out on you.”

“That’s– It’s no problem, Louis,” Harry said, but his voice was weak and again Louis couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. Maybe that had been too much information, maybe he really thought Louis was completely out of his mind and decided that being friends with him (or something else) wasn’t worth it.

“I like you, Harry. I really do, I hope you know that.” Louis confessed. Even if he was coming on too forward, probably nothing would happen between him and Harry after that, be it because of Harry’s judgment of Louis’ sanity or because the universe didn’t want them to. The signs were all leading to that, anyway. “Thanks for today, truly. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Harry kept looking at Louis, his green eyes with such sad gleam it hurt Louis to see Harry so dejected for him. That had nothing to do with Harry, and still, the man felt sympathy for Louis. He truly didn’t deserve someone like Harry in his life and it hurt that he couldn’t have more of Harry to himself.

Before Louis got out from the car, Harry only nodded and sent him a lopsided smile and Louis wished he had said something, anything back to comfort him, to know that he wasn’t alone in his feelings, but now he wasn’t so sure about it anymore.

As Louis stepped on the pavement in front of his building and the Uber drove away (obviously splashing water on him, which he didn’t even mind by this point), he took a deep breath, letting the rain fall down on him for a moment and add to this whole mess. Fuck it if he was about to get another cold, he just needed to wash all those thoughts and frustration away.

Cuddling with his dog, some tea and a good night sleep should also help with that.

 

*

 

Thursday had Louis literally waking up on the wrong foot as he stepped out of his bed and tripped over Clifford sleeping on the floor, falling face first. Not that it had been the first time that had happened, but along with the fact that Louis had decided the night before to do the laundry, including his soaked clothes from the rain, not realising that he had mixed the red briefs he had been wearing that day with white socks and shirts, Louis woke up to see all his washed and dried clothes dyed in pink colour.

He didn’t have time to process any of that. He fetched a pair of socks he knew were white before and wore them anyway, nobody would see the disaster they had become. Although, he had planned on wearing his Stone Roses t-shirt and that had been ruined too, but he decided to just say fuck it and put it on, because not even his poor washing skills would stop it from being his favourite t-shirt.

Getting to the office, Louis didn’t know what to expect from his day though. His arse was on the line, that much he was aware of. He was so close to having John Terry as his only option as a replacement for David Beckham that he truly was about to tell Simon to call that whole interview idea off and decide on something else, which probably would cost a lot to Louis. He had one day to work on that because on Friday afternoon they’d have the debriefing for January’s issue and everything would have to be ready.

Finding the offending Zorro guy had completely slipped his mind that day, because Louis’ thoughts were somewhere else entirely. He kept thinking about Harry and what had happened the day before and wondering if anything had changed for the other man. Clearly, before they got inside the Uber, Harry was about to kiss him again, but then he had gotten all weirded out, closed off and distant, and Louis didn’t know what to do with that.

Any chance of actually getting to kiss Harry had gone down the drain, Louis knew it, but losing his friendship altogether was something Louis didn’t want to and so he tried to act normal. He tried to stop by Niall and Harry’s office a few times and engage in conversation with Harry, but the man was still acting different with Louis, not quite looking at him neither answering him cheerfully as he always did. Niall had noticed that too and over lunch, he told Louis that Harry had barely spoken that day, looking gloomy and distracted and maybe on Friday he would have lunch with him to try to cheer him up and find out if it had anything to do with Louis.

If Niall was willing to help him figure Harry out, then Louis couldn’t say no and all that was left for him to do for the rest of the day was trying to focus on his work, try to cheer himself up too by joking with Stan while they made the recap news of the previous night’s Champions League matches.

By Friday, Louis hoped things would be better for him.

 

*

 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Louis shouted on the pavement, making people around them turn and face him, horrified, as he followed the cyclist that had just passed by them with his eyes, giving him the finger. The man simply dismissed him and kept going on his track.

“I think you can fix it,” Zayn said cautiously as he crouched down and took Louis’ glasses from the ground, broken exactly in the middle, its arms all crooked and the lens scratched.

It was Louis’ fault, obviously, since he had tripped over a gap on the pavement and had let his glasses fall. But then, the absentminded cyclist hadn’t paid attention to where he was riding his bike and had run over Louis’ glasses.

“Not now!” Louis puffed, lifting both arms above his head and then letting them fall on his sides in frustration. “I need the glasses to read my presentation today, I need it for everything work related! I need my glasses to walk without falling on my face right now!” He took the glasses from Zayn’s hand, pocketing it inside his jacket.

“Don’t you have your lens with you?” Liam asked, coming closer to put a hand over his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

“I left them at home. I’m not wearing them anymore after the whole incident with my eye.” He sighed, pointing to his own face.

“C’mon.” Zayn patted him on his back, standing on his other side. “We’ll get to the office and we’ll see what we can do. Maybe Harry will have a spare pair for you.”

Louis laughed weakly. As if Harry would somehow help him again since he hadn’t even looked at Louis that Friday morning.

Taking his words, Niall had gone out for lunch with Harry, and so Louis had invited himself to have lunch with Zayn and Liam. And now, as they made their way back to Syco’s office, Louis’ glasses shattered, just like his own dignity and heart, he didn’t know if he really wanted to know what was going on with Harry. He was already frustrated enough with everything else and getting also frustrated with Harry wasn’t helping much.

Despite his moodiness, he followed Zayn and Liam back to Syco (with their help as so not to stumble on his own feet or over something he couldn’t see very well), and right to Niall and Harry’s office, spotting them already there, but not alone.

“Boys!” Gemma greeted as she saw them coming inside the room.

“Hey, Gemma.” Liam approached her first to give her a hug and Louis stayed behind, surveilling the room to see Harry, sitting on his chair beside his sister, quickly glancing at him and then focusing anywhere else in the room. Louis turned to face Niall, who only shrugged. Louis figured he hadn’t been able to find out much about Harry’s strange behaviour. “How was the trip?”

“Oh, it was wonderful.” She smiled widely at him, her red lipstick contrasting her light skin. “It’s always a delight to be invited for fashion and cosmetic products events. All we have to do is observe everyone around, test out products and do some networking. And on the side, we get to enjoy the beaches and the parties! Hi Zayn, Louis!” She waved at them excitedly.

“Oh, the parties! Can’t imagine how relieved you must’ve been to be at a real party other than Syco’s lame ones,” Zayn joked, making her laugh.

“Nah, c’mon. Syco’s parties are an entirely different kind. I had so much fun on Halloween, can’t wait for the Christmas’ one coming up. Harry here will finally be able to attend this one as an official employee.” She put an arm around Harry’s shoulder and ruffled the top of his hair.

“He’s been to other parties here at Syco?” Liam asked and Louis could notice that he was surprised by that information. So was he, because never had Harry mentioned already being around Syco, not even if it was to accompany Gemma.

“Yeah, he didn’t tell you?” Gemma looked at Harry with her brows knitted. “Haz, you didn’t tell them how Simon hired you?”

Even with his somewhat blurred vision, Louis could see all colour leave Harry’s face before he barely spoke. “Er, no, I di–”

“Haz!” Gemma tutted. “I can’t believe it. Actually, I can’t believe what I did actually worked out. So, I took Harry to the Halloween party, right? And I tried to convince Simon to talk to h–”

“Wait!” Louis suddenly spoke over her, trying to register what Gemma was saying. “Harry was at the party?!”

That couldn’t be right, no. How could have Harry been at the party and not mention it? Especially when he knew how desperate Louis was about finding out what had happened to him, when he asked Louis why he had been searching for Zorro guy?”

Louis was probably fuming and one look at Zayn, Liam and Niall also confirmed that they were thinking the same thing as him. Harry seemed to be barely breathing, though.

“Yes?” Gemma answered, confused. “Harry, how come you didn’t tell them about it?” She looked at Harry with a stern look. “He went with me, I was dressed as Morticia and he as Zorro, the only costume I could find for him last minute. Didn’t you see us there? I thought I spotted you two chatting before I took Simon to talk to him, Lou.”

For a second, Louis felt as if his entire world had stopped spinning. He felt like his entire world was collapsing in front of him. He actually didn’t know what he was feeling. Surprise, anger, betrayal… relief?

No, he wasn’t relieved, he was fucking mad at Harry, that was what he was.

“You!” Louis shouted, taking long strides towards a widened-eye Harry. “You knew it all this time!”

It wasn’t a question, because Louis was certain Harry knew he had kissed him, he was certain Harry knew he had taken his luck.

It all made sense now. How could have Louis not seen it before?

Of course.

Harry had suddenly found a job at Syco Entertainment, had gotten the best side of Simon Cowell right after kissing Louis and managed to snatch himself a place at the corporation. Then, he had met Louis again, told him about how bad things had stopped happening to him, had swept everyone’s feet around the office, had managed to get successful at every single thing he did at his job. He had become lucky in the blink of an eye, everything going right for him just as things had turned completely the opposite for Louis. And he knew it, he knew what had happened. He experienced Louis’ misery first hand, helping him, being so solicitous towards Louis. He knew Louis was having a horrible time because of him and instead of being truthful to Louis, giving back his luck, he decided to keep it and hide the fact that he knew about it all along.

“Louis, I don’t– I didn’t! Please, let me explain.” Harry was about to stand up from his chair when Louis got very close to him, pointing a finger right to his chest.

“No! You don’t get to explain. After everything I’ve been through, and you fucking knew it. How dare you? How fucking dare you?”

“Guys, what’s going on?” Gemma stepped aside, her voice completely terrified.

“That’s complicated,” Niall replied and Louis didn’t have to turn around to know his friends were as shocked as he was.

“Louis, no! I truly am sorry, but I didn’t do it on purpose. If you’d just let me–”

Harry’s shameful look had no effect on Louis. Harry entirely didn’t have any more effect on Louis. Any trace of fondness and endearment Louis had towards Harry had dissipated and the only thing Louis felt was despise.

“Don’t you say another word to me.” Louis couldn’t handle Harry trying to come up with excuses to justify his actions and deceit. All he wanted was for all of that to be over and for him to never have to look at Harry’s face again.

Louis saw Harry’s eyes widen again as he leaned forward and captured Harry’s lips on his.

That would have to be the only solution for Louis’ luck to return to him. Harry had taken it by kissing him at the Halloween party and now, he was claiming it back the same way.

The touch caused Louis to shiver. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, his heart started beating faster and even if all the windows in the office were closed, he still felt a strong blow of wind course through him.

And it was with just a swift movement of Louis’ lips against Harry, almost asking to deepen the contact, that Louis felt all his memories of that night come back to him.

Harry clumsily making his way towards him at the bar wearing the Zorro costume. Harry knocking over the Martini glass Louis was about to offer him. Louis saying he could get another one for Harry (and what a joke it was that Harry had pulled the same line on Louis and Louis had been oblivious to it. The fucker). Them dancing so close on the dance floor. Louis getting more and more into Harry as they swung against each other to the sound of the music. Louis leading them to the balcony. Louis saying he could get even luckier if he kissed Harry. Harry answering saying that Louis could help him change his luck that night (THE! FUCKER!). Louis taking off Harry’s big black hat. Them kissing.

Louis pulled away in a jolt, looking at Harry so angrily he was disgusted with himself, with Harry.

“Louis, wait!” Harry called, trying to stand up, but losing balance on his own chair and falling behind on his back. Louis stepped back, shaking his head, not even minding if he had hurt himself or not on his fall.

“You stay away! Stay away from me and my luck! You already know how I feel about you, so don’t even try coming after me!” He said furiously, turning around and storming out of the office.

The last thing he heard was Gemma’s alarmed voice calling for Harry, asking if he was alright and what had just happened, and possibly Niall shouting at Harry too, but he wouldn’t turn around to see how that had gone down.

He was done. He was so done with Harry and he hoped that had been the last of it – the last of him having to deal with Harry, the last of his misfortune.

As he walked back to his office, Louis inhaled deeply, somehow feeling lighter, as if he had left everything bad behind him.

Entering his room felt like starting over, afresh.

“I was about to go look for you, thought I heard you screaming at someone?” Stan asked, studying Louis’ face carefully.

“Never mind that, everything’s solved now, Stanley.” Louis let out a breath of relief as he sat by his desk, took off his jacket placing it on the back of his chair, and turned on his computer. As the screen came to life, Louis noticed how blurred it was and for a moment he had forgotten he wasn’t wearing his broken glasses, now useless to him.

He calmed himself and looked back at Stan, remembering that his mate used to wear glasses too but now didn’t have them on anymore. “Stan, do you happen to have your old glasses with you?”

Stan clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “I used to leave them in my drawer, it’s been a while since I’ve last worn them, let me see.” He opened the drawer and shuffled inside it quickly before he fetched his black frames. “Here they are! They are a bit dirty, dunno if they’ll fit you. What happened to yours anyway?”

Louis rolled his chair closer to Stan, taking the glasses in his hand. “Fell on the street.” Louis examined them, looking through the lens close to his face without putting them on, but reckoned they didn’t seem too bad for him. He then cleaned them on his shirt and just as he placed them over his eyes, it was like his world had come to life in high-definition vision again.

“They are perfect.”

He smiled at himself, already feeling like some things were turning around for him.

“You can keep them for how long you’d like.”

“I’ll probably get back to the contact lens.” Louis shrugged, getting back to his desk and looking at the clock on his computer, realising he still had one hour left until the meeting with Simon.

A nervous thrill ran through him because amongst everything that had happened, he still hadn’t found a solution for his David Beckham problem. John Terry’s PR had literally begged to let him be interviewed, but Louis had only stalled them, hoping something better would come along. It hadn’t and so he was almost giving up and deciding to answer that damn email saying he could have the spot for the interview.

Just as he opened his email inbox, he found a new message awaiting him.

“No fucking way!”

Stan turned to him, startled. “What?”

He held a hand out to Stan, asking him to wait until he read the whole email. He couldn’t believe he was reading that. He couldn’t believe his luck.

(Actually, he could now. He could almost jump in excitement for having it back and have it confirmed that everything bad that happened was due to Harry stealing it from him.)

“Beckham’s PR. They emailed me,” he finally said, swallowing dryly as he scanned through the email again. “They said that there was a mistake in their schedule. They had a mixed-up and thought he wouldn’t be free anymore for the interview, but as David had requested if he was still up for it, they noticed the mistake and that he had these two weeks before Christmas available to work with us, if we still have the spot open for him.”

“You’re shitting me!” Stan got up from his chair and walked to Louis’ desk to read the email himself.

“I wish, lad.” Louis let out a relieved laugh. “Fuck me, this feels surreal. I can’t fucking believe it. They want to work with me. David fucking Beckham asked to be interviewed by me.” Louis shook his head in disbelief and awe.

“You’re back in the game, Tommo, ay!” Stan patted him on the back. “Guess you’ll actually have something to show Simon at the meeting. No need to worry anymore and you can kick Terry in the arse.” He laughed as he went back to his desk.

Louis felt all his worries disappear as he looked at the email again. A feeling of complete happiness took over him, something he hadn’t felt in over a month.

Yes, he was back in the game again, and so was his luck.

 

*

 

December at Syco kicked off with Louis overwhelmed by how things had started working out for him again. Not only at work, but really in every other aspect of his life. He had spent the weekend free of any incidents and predicaments; he could finally wear his new contact lens and throw his old glasses away; he was finally able to call his mum and the girls back in Doncaster without them constantly feeling worried about his well-being; and he could go out with Clifford to the park without the fear of something happening to him and his dog. Everything had fallen into place in his life again, finally.

After the meeting with Simon on Friday, Louis received the thumbs up from his boss to go on with David Beckham’s interview, feeling very satisfied with Louis’ endeavour and commitment to keeping the magazine interesting and entertaining. And so on Monday, Louis already started arranging everything for the interview, scheduling places, photographers and stylists for the photoshoot. The rest of the week he spent doing extensive research on David and his career, thinking about what questions to make, drafting the layout of his article and so on.

With everything going so smoothly for him, Louis didn't even notice how fast the weekend had approached. He was feeling so light, preparing himself for the next week when he’d get to spend two days with David Beckham that he didn’t even care about anything else.

That was, until he found himself at his flat with Niall on Saturday afternoon playing a round of Mario Kart and Niall started talking about Harry.

Louis had completely ignored Harry and his existence that week. He was proper mad at him, not sure he could ever forgive him or even be civil with him if he were to keep working alongside Niall.

Niall had been pissed at Harry too, because he had thought they had become friends over the month they’ve worked together and when Harry hid the fact that he had been to the party when things with Louis could’ve been solved much faster, Niall felt just as betrayed as Louis.

That didn’t last long though because Niall had to interact with Harry every day and so he saw how everything had affected Harry from up close.

“Louis, I’m telling you, it’s bad,” Niall said, focused on making his Yoshi run faster on the lane. “Like, terrible.”

Louis hummed, his Luigi shooting a special feature on the lane that got Niall’s kart spinning on the screen.

“Louis, I’m serious!” Niall exclaimed and paused the game, turning over to face him.

“Ugh,” Louis grunted, crossing his arms over his chest. “Are you pitying him now? After all he’s done to me? Do you not have compassion for me and everything I’ve been through for this past month? If things are going badly for him, good. Let him suffer the same way I did to see if he’s learned his lesson.”

“It’s worse,” Niall was careful when he spoke again.

Louis placed his controller on the coffee table. “Worse how?”

Niall sat straight on the sofa, also letting go of his controller. “Simon threatened to fire him.”

“He what?” Louis’ high pitched voice made Clifford come closer to him, resting his head over Louis’ thigh. “How much did he fuck up? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You warned not only me but Liam and Zayn too not to mention Harry ever again. How was I supposed to tell you this?” Niall shook his head. “It was bad, like, first things first he arrived Monday with a patch over his eye and under his glasses, because apparently, his cat scratched his eye. I wanted to laugh at him, because that would’ve been something that could’ve happened to you, so he deserved it, you know?”

Louis nodded in agreement. That wasn’t even close to Harry paying for what Louis had suffered, but he figured it was a good enough start.

“And so, Monday was also the day he would start with the Christmas playlist thing? That first project that Liam approved? But he… well, I don’t know how he tweeted something without Liam knowing and Liam was furious at him because Simon happened to see it and was telling him off for something that wasn’t even his fault.”

“What did he even tweet?”

“It would be funny if it weren’t so sad,” Niall laughed mockingly. “He tweeted ‘ _Christmas songs I am your slave_ ’.”

Louis couldn’t help cackle at that. What the fuck!

Niall tried to calm himself as he laughed along with Louis. “I know, it’s ridiculous. But that had gone online somehow and Simon was furious at both Payno and him after finding out what had happened.”

“Within reason, of course,” Louis pondered.

“Yeah, but that was not only it.” Niall started chewing on the pad of his thumb nervously.

“Fuck, what else?”

“So, he had this playlist ready since his first day at Syco, he literally put it together in one day without batting an eye, right… only, he decided to completely change it! On the day it was supposed to go online!” Niall said, a tad too exasperated for Louis’ likes.

“What’s the problem with that?”

“Tommo, you know how overwhelmed Liam gets on Christmas time. There’s a hundred and fifty things he has to update, to constantly monitor that they are being posted correctly – hence the slave tweet – and he had already prescheduled the tweets for Harry’s playlist, he wasn’t going to go over every one of them when Simon was already on his neck about other stuff.”

Louis considered it and yeah, that didn’t sound like something Liam had the time to do when he had already prepared his work beforehand.

“But,” Nall continued, “Harry begged him, saying that he was sure the new songs would be better than the ones he had selected before and Liam gave in, but told him that he couldn’t go back. Whatever change he made then, it was final.”

Clifford let out a soft howl as he asked Louis for attention and Louis gave him space to fit in between his legs, making it easier for him to pet him, scratching the fur on top of his head. “So, things turned out good for Harry in the end. I don’t see how’s that bad or how Simon wanted to fire him.”

“No, that’s not the end of that. The tweets went online and, well, they didn’t do as well as Harry’s previous ones. Actually, some people complained, replying and retweeting saying that those were cliché Christmas songs, that they expected Syco to be more original and of course at the end of the week, the complaints had gotten to Simon,” Niall explained, looking proper dejected by Harry’s fuck-up. “Lou, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that mad since the day you skipped work. He was fuming at Harry, saying that he was incompetent, that he had hired him in the hopes that he would bring a different approach to the music online content, but now he wasn’t so sure.”

Even Louis had to admit that wasn’t good, that nobody should have to hear Simon being a fucking bully, even if that person was Harry.

“Fuck, that’s harsh,” Louis said, but still trying not to sound too affected by Harry’s misfortune.

“Harsh was the way Simon said that if Harry didn’t come up with something for January to make up for his Christmas fiasco, in one week, he would fire him.”

Louis’ eyes widened at that and he was speechless. For all the times he had fucked up at work in the past month, he was sure Simon would fire him, but his boss had never actually threatened him with that. Now though, he was doing that to Harry and Louis wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

“I’m telling you, it’s bad, worse than it was with you. I’m not saying he deserves us, mainly you, to forgive him, but I’m honestly gutted for what he’s been going through. He feels sorry, if you must know,” Niall pointed out, making Louis snap out of his thoughts.

“What?”

“He tried to explain himself to me, but I said it wasn’t my place to know his motives and whatever the fuck had gone on between you and him. But he tried, not only once, to ask me to let you know that he wants to talk to you, I just didn’t think you’d be up for it, obviously.”

Louis was glad he had such loyal friends and that they were protecting him, but if Louis really thought about it, maybe he should let Harry talk to him. Not that he would actually forgive him, but somehow, over Niall telling him all the bad things that had happened to Harry that week, it was like Louis could feel what he had gone through himself over November, and to think about the agony and frustration Harry must’ve been feeling… Louis didn’t wish that for his worst enemy.

And Harry was far from that. Louis was still mad at him, would be for a long time, but he had considered Harry a friend once and if he was really, really honest with himself, he had started to miss Harry’s occasional talks, Harry showing up randomly to help him, and being so attentive and kind.

Louis had thought it over and considered that Harry hadn’t acted on pretence towards him every time he had offered help. Louis wasn’t even sure Harry knew why Louis was being so unfortunate every day, but at some point, especially when Louis had started his search for the mysterious Zorro and definitely after Louis had let out all his frustrations during their Uber drive, Harry must’ve figured out what had happened between them.

The thing that was eating Louis up the most though, was why Harry hadn’t said anything if he had then realised their connection and luck twist. Probably it was the same reason Louis pondered for himself: he wouldn’t want to lose his luck. Still, that wasn’t a good enough excuse to let Louis in the dark and suffering, knowing that he had his luck and could give it back to him any time. Christ, Louis could’ve gotten his luck back that first time they had almost kissed and then probably they wouldn’t be in the mess they found themselves in.

Even though, Louis still didn’t know if he wanted to listen to what Harry had to tell him. There was a lot going on inside his head, his feelings were confusing – angry at Harry but somehow wondering if Harry really deserved to go through all of that.

There wasn’t much time for Louis to think about that, especially with David Beckham’s interview coming up the next week. And focusing on that helped him leave his thoughts of Harry behind, at least for a while.

Although Louis was excited about the gig, had felt properly starstruck to meet David Beckham in person, talk and interview him, he knew there was something in the back of his mind he needed to work out. He was happy; he knew he was, but knowing his happiness was coming by the extent of Harry’s misery and misfortune wasn’t something that was suiting him well.

After the talk with Niall over the weekend, it seemed Niall felt more comfortable talking about Harry around Louis, keeping him updated on every mishap the man had found himself in.

One day it was Harry arriving late at work because somehow he managed to get the wrong underground line and ended up on the other side of the city; the other was him losing his wallet on the street; then it was Harry dropping a bowl of noodles he had prepared for himself as lunch as so to avoid going out and spend money he didn’t even have because of his lost wallet; or the day he had arrived at work with his knee scratched because he had fallen on the pavement, and another time had bird poo in his hair.

Those were all things Louis could imagine happening to him if he had never gotten his luck back and knowing all of that was happening to Harry, not to mention the pressure Simon had put on him, it was very hard to ignore that Louis had started to feel bad for the long curly haired man.

The thing was, over the month he got to know Harry, his actions and hidden motives aside (if there was any, anyway), Louis had properly started to like Harry, was definitely infatuated by him and as much as he had been hurt, almost as if he had been stabbed in the back, he couldn’t deny that a bit of that feeling was still there.

Every time he crossed paths with Harry walking down the hallway, going to the loo, arriving or leaving the office, catching the lift… Louis could see Harry’s shameful, sorry and embarrassed look on his face. He tried to ignore it and to ignore Harry but at the same time, he could feel Harry was trying to reach out to him but would drop it at the last minute and go his own way without talking to Louis, knowing Louis wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

Louis was conflicted, but as the days passed he was getting more and more certain he couldn’t stand seeing Harry so dejected and hopeless, on the verge of losing his job because Louis had been selfish to get his luck back, and now Harry was the one suffering from it.

What Louis needed back the most, he had already gotten. He had finished David Beckham’s interview with a flourish, the athlete so very grateful and delighted for having worked with Louis, Simon also proud of Louis’ accomplishment, and everything for the interview almost ready for its final touches that Louis could work out over the next week before the Christmas break.

He was doing well again, and if he considered all the odds, there wasn’t much that could go wrong for him after that. He didn’t need his luck that much anymore, and he knew that by the end of the week, Harry would need it much more than him, if Niall telling him that Harry still hadn’t thought about anything that could satisfy Simon to make him keep Harry’s position was any sign.

It was a scary thought, though, Louis couldn’t deny it, but he reckoned that he’d much rather see Harry thriving than seeing him in this funk, one Louis knew very well how it was to be in. If seeing Harry happy again, his cheerful self Louis got to know, and if he admitted to himself, also fell a little bit in love with, then he didn’t think what he was building up the courage to do was something he would completely regret afterwards.


	6. Chapter 6

****“Here we go again, another lousy party!” Niall mocked his enthusiasm as he stepped inside Simon’s penthouse with Louis, Liam and Zayn in tow.

“It could be worse, Nialler,” Liam snickered, already making his way towards the bar, as usual.

Niall stopped in his tracks to face Liam. “How? He said it was mandatory to wear Christmas jumpers, for fuck’s sake, Payno.”

“The old man is clearly losing his mind,” Zayn snorted, shaking his head.

“He doesn’t know anymore what else to come up with and he still thinks his parties are a fucking hit, but that’s only ‘cause he forces us to come.” Niall rolled his eyes. “If I have to wear this awful jumper, then I might as well do it while pissed over me tits.”

“Nobody forced you to choose this specific horrible jumper, Horan.” Louis patted him on the shoulder, making him walk again.

[ It was one of the ugliest things Louis had seen in his life](https://66.media.tumblr.com/a329896bd3f61b0835dc1c64c6035552/tumblr_pmqjb3JlsC1vnwncjo1_500.jpg). It was mostly white, with green around the waist hem, the sleeves and the neck, covered with small mistletoes all over it. Truly horrifying, but that was not the worst – it had a gigantic red bow on the front as if tying around Niall’s torso.

The others’ jumpers weren’t as offending as Niall’s. [ Liam](https://66.media.tumblr.com/406d4efaf0cb434ac755f16f26f53b31/tumblr_pmqjb3JlsC1vnwncjo2_1280.jpg) was wearing a red one with a huge snowman and ‘Ho Ho Ho’ printed on it. [ Zayn](https://66.media.tumblr.com/6961feb04169c550bc82b2491633c780/tumblr_pmqjb3JlsC1vnwncjo3_640.png), even though he didn’t celebrate Christmas, was wearing a knitted black one that had “Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal” in honour of Home Alone printed in white letters and some small white Christmas trees and other patterns all over it.

[ Louis’](https://66.media.tumblr.com/b3db1b7341217b8ec72998d82c785a94/tumblr_pmqjb3JlsC1vnwncjo4_400.jpg) own jumper was rather simple, but somewhat dirty and funny at the same time. It was a mix of white, red and blue with different patterns, but with two white reindeers humping each other around the middle.

“I take the thematic seriously.” Niall shrugged. “Learned from this one here.” He smirked at Liam, who punched him lightly on the arm.

“Let’s get some pints, please.” Zayn pulled Liam by the hand, making them walk further into the room.

“You lads go, I have to… I’ll catch up with you later,” Louis said trying to hide his nervousness.

All three of them stopped again to look at Louis with frowned brows.

“Where are you going?” Liam was the one to ask.

The thing was, Louis hadn’t told any of his friends what he had planned on doing. He still didn’t know exactly what he was about to do, but the only thing he was sure of was that he had to do it, especially after he knew Harry’s deadline to come up with a new project that wouldn’t get him fired had been pushed until Monday, which gave Louis the perfect opportunity to try what he had in mind on Saturday night at the Christmas party. That was, if Harry were to show up at said party.

Louis still hadn’t talked to Harry again, even if his feelings for him had settled and he had started feeling sorry for the man. He didn’t know how to do so with the way Harry was acting towards him, as if afraid of Louis. That was the last thing Louis wanted Harry to feel, and he knew Harry must’ve been worried about so many other things, and with his arse on the line, Louis figured he had to do something to prevent Harry from finding himself in a worse situation.

It was his fault. Or maybe it had been Harry’s fault all along… or possibly it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was not like they were in control of their own luck and fate anyway, that much was clear after the universe or whatever cosmic powers decided to play with them. So, just because they had switched luck, that still didn’t mean Harry deserved to be fired because Louis had taken his luck back. For all Louis knew, Harry was a dedicated person and employee, and he wanted to believe luck had nothing to do with how Harry got his job at Syco. He needed to believe Harry was capable of his own accomplishments, but if what Harry needed to keep the job was a little push with Louis’ luck, then he reckoned he could provide him with it.

And so, Louis’ hope was that Harry would be at the party. Niall had told him that Harry wasn’t that much excited about it, but Gemma was trying to convince him, mainly as a way to cheer him up after the bumpy week he’d had. Harry’s sister hadn’t talked to Louis after the scene that happened on that Friday either, so Louis couldn’t go to her and ask if Harry would accompany her – he was actually terrified of Gemma’s piercing and murderous looks at him every time they crossed paths in the hallway.

He wished he didn’t have to deal with her anger. Nonetheless, he knew he deserved it for how he had treated her brother in front of her, anyway. Maybe after things started going well for Harry again, she could forgive Louis if she understood what had happened.

“I need to talk to someone,” Louis answered vaguely and maybe Niall would see right through him as he had already noticed how Louis’ sharp behaviour towards Harry had changed. It didn’t matter though. It was better for him to get on with what he needed to do than to explain himself to his friends. Sooner or later, if everything worked out as planned, they would know.

The three lads still looked confused at Louis, but he only waved them off and walked away from them, already looking around himself trying to see if he could spot Harry among the mass of people inside Simon’s house – which was decorated with a huge Christmas tree by one corner of the room, colourful Christmas lights and tinsel strings all over the windows and furniture, and several Christmas wreaths and mistletoes hanging on the walls and from the ceiling.

He made his way through his colleagues who greeted him, but he didn’t pay them much attention as he walked around the makeshift dance floor and outside in the balcony, but with no such luck of finding Harry. Going back inside, Louis took a turn to the hallway that lead to the kitchen and the toilets, spotting Gemma standing by the wall, [ wearing a white furry jumper](https://66.media.tumblr.com/532ca7622be0ee6853ce787c8266bb5e/tumblr_pmqjn3HRXR1vnwncjo1_540.jpg) with a delicate outline of a reindeer with golden antlers, black eyelashes and a red sequin nose, a bottle of beer in one hand and her phone in her other.

If Gemma was there, there was a good chance Harry was around too, so he braced himself to talk to her after two weeks and hoping that she wouldn’t lash out on him.

“Hi Gemma,” Louis greeted cautiously and at the sound of his voice, Gemma looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow at him.

“Louis,” she said back, looking at him briefly and then facing her phone again.

Louis gulped dryly. He knew he deserved the cold treatment, but he had to ignore it if he wanted to know about Harry’s whereabouts.

“Just arrived?” He decided on the small talk to see if she would open up to him.

“Not really,” she answered, indicating her bottle at him, but not looking up.

Louis inhaled sharply, trying to calm himself. He wouldn’t get anywhere if he didn’t go straight to the point. “So, did Harry come with you?”

At that, Gemma snapped her head to look at Louis and her expression wasn’t a friendly one. “Why d’ya wanna know? Came all the way here to humiliate him again?”

Her sharp words took Louis aback. Right, she was definitely angry at him.

“No, Gemma, I’m not. I’m actually trying to apologi–”

She locked her phone and put it inside one of her tight jeans pockets. “You? _You_ want to apologise? Yeah, you damn well should. But why now when you know my brother’s been trying to talk to you and you haven’t even cared to look at him for the past two weeks?”

Guilt ran through him and Louis knew he had been harsh on Harry, but he’d had his reasons.

“‘Cause I realised that whatever happened with us wasn’t only on him. And I don’t want this to be a misunderstanding, and I don’t want him to lose his job becau–”

Gemma let out a sarcastic laugh. “So you’re pitying him ‘cause you heard about Simon’s ultimatum.”

Louis was starting to lose his patience. He didn’t know if he could deal with Gemma’s harsh (but obvious) remarks at him without snapping, even though he was aware she also had her reasons. Harry was her brother, so of course she would be by his side, try to protect him, even if she didn’t know what had happened – or if she knew about it all, even.

“I’m not here to argue with you, Gemma. I’m sorry I hurt your brother in front of you. I know things haven’t gone well for him and it’s probably my fault and yes, I’m feeling sorry, partially ‘cause I know damn well how that feels. And you can believe me or not, but I care about Harry and I just can’t leave this thing between us unsolved. I want to make things right for him.”

He didn’t know where the courage to confess that had come from, but he spoke earnestly, pouring his heart out at Gemma trying to make sure she’d understand him.

Which seemed to work because then her expression had softened and she narrowed her eyes at him before speaking again.

“Listen, I don’t know what happened between you two. Harry wouldn’t tell me, said I wouldn’t understand it, that he couldn’t understand it himself very well. All I know is that my brother’s been pining for you since day one but was not sure if he could ever try something whatever reason he had for that. He’s been scared of screwing anything up and what you pulled at him, that shit hurt.” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment before she continued and glanced quickly from the hallway back to Louis. “So, he’s been hurt and having a hell of a hard time again, one I thought had finally left him after getting the job at Syco. So whatever you did to him, if you meant it or not, if you really want to make amends for it, you better do it and fix it. ‘Cause I don’t wanna see him hurting again, and if I find out it was because of you again, I’ll come for your arse, Tomlinson.”

Gemma’s voice was stern but determined and Louis knew she wasn’t messing around. She would probably have his balls off if anything happened to Harry because of Louis, and he didn’t want to deal with her wrath again.

“I do. I wanna fix it and I don’t wanna make him suffer any more than he already has. I like him, Gemma, have so for some time and all of this was a big misunderstanding.” Louis let out a loud and heavy breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Gemma regarded him thoughtfully, her eyes still a bit cold but slowly coming back to their shiny hazel tone. She nodded then, opening a tiny smile at him.

“I never took you for a bad person, Louis. I like you, and so does my brother and if you also care for him as you say you do, I only hope you two can work yourselves out. I won’t be an arse to stand in your way,” she said, taking a gulp from her beer and Louis could see the line of her lips quirking and he knew he had broken down her guard, finally. “He’s in the loo. Been there for quite a while though. God only knows what’s happened to him there, so if you want to talk to him, go ahead.”

Louis nodded, relief filling him as Gemma moved from the wall and took a step closer to him and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Don’t mess this up, Louis.”

“Won’t. Promise,” he replied, and she smiled openly at him, stepping away and giving him space to make his way towards the toilets.

Walking the small distance, Louis tried to calm himself and think about what he would say to Harry, but before he could gather his thoughts, the toilet door opened in front of him, almost hitting him in the face, but he managed to step aside before it could.

“Oops.”

Louis didn’t have to look up to see it was Harry who had opened the door.

He sucked a deep breath before he spoke. “Hi.”

Harry looked startled at Louis, his eyes wide, as if not quite believing Louis was there in front of him, speaking to him.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to hit you.” He gulped down, taking a step outside the open door, leaning against it to give Louis space as if to let him inside.

“No problem, Harry.” Louis gave him a lopsided smile, taking Harry in. The man was wearing a [ red jumper](https://66.media.tumblr.com/0e9bb7c9bb83b6f4abe269712219feaa/tumblr_plwzkgzlbm1vnwncjo1_640.jpg) with a Christmas tree on the front that was covered with tinsel and pompoms as Christmas ornaments. His hair was down and loose, his green eyes were covered with round maroon frames and his brows had a confused furrowed line on them. “Were you alright in there?”

Louis didn’t know why he was making small talk with Harry, but he had to initiate the talk somehow.

Harry ran a hand over the top of his head, running it down to the tip of his hair, and pushing the glasses against his face with the other, still looking kinda lost at their interaction.

“Hm, yeah. Just a bit of the tinsel from my jumper got stuck into the door handle.” He fiddled with a loose strand of tinsel and Louis could see he had tried to tie it around one pompom to fix it. “But everything’s okay. No damage to the bathroom, you can use it.” He indicated with his hand to the inside of the toilet.

“I don’t wanna go to the loo.” Louis shook his head, his eyes downcast as he observed Harry’s forehead frown. “I was looking for you. Gemma told me you’d be here.”

Harry breathed in heavily, licking his lips. “Why?”

“C’mere.” Louis motioned for Harry to walk with him to the end of the hallway back to the living room. “I can’t talk to you standing by the toilet door.” He looked behind himself to see Harry carefully closing the door and looking at Louis suspiciously as he followed him.

Louis stopped at the same spot he and Gemma had been before, leaning just against the corner of the wall. Harry stood in front of him, blocking the entrance of the hallway. Nobody else seemed to be coming that way or to be paying attention to them standing there.

“So?” Harry asked, closing himself off as he crossed both arms over his chest.

Louis pondered for a second how to start and then exhaled. “Alright, I don’t quite know what to say. I’ve been mulling it over but I guess we both need to say some things to each other. I want to say sorry for how I acted but I feel you owe me some apologies first.”

Harry’s hands were digging nervously into his arms and Louis could see him shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Harry blinked slowly a couple of times behind his lens, probably gathering the situation they found themselves in before he spoke.

“I wanted to say sorry before, but you wouldn’t let me, Louis. I thought you’d never give the chance to say so.”

“You can’t blame me. I was so angry, so fucking outraged for finding out it was _you_. Anyone else in my place would’ve acted the same.”

Harry ducked down his head, not looking Louis in the eye. “I didn’t know it was _me._ I mean, obviously it was me, I was dressed as Zorro, I knew I had kissed you, but I didn’t know I was the one that had caused you all that misfortune and pain.” He shook his head and then finally looked at Louis, fixing his glasses on top of his nose. “I knew who you were the moment we first bumped into each other, but then you didn’t remember me and I didn’t understand why. You had disappeared at the party. I saw you on the floor with another person helping you after we kissed, but I was too engrossed talking to Gemma and Simon that I couldn’t just leave them and go check on you. So after I didn’t see you anymore and with Simon offering me the position, it completely slipped my mind to ask Gemma about you again.”

“I remembered nothing about that night until the moment I kissed you again, Harry,” Louis explained. “Whatever happened that night, it took my memories away along with my luck, that’s why I was so desperate to find whoever had done this to me. I only got to the conclusion it had something to do with the Zorro-person I had been around after much nonsense astrological talk and theories. I don’t even understand how and why our luck has changed, the lads probably can explain it better if you want, but... I should’ve realised there was something different about you. You kept telling us about everything that used to happen to you and then it didn’t anymore. I couldn’t put the pieces together because I didn’t even know I had met you before.”

“I thought you had gotten too drunk and forgotten about me, or worse, ignored the fact that we had kissed,” Harry laughed weakly. “S’why I tried to flirt back with the same line you had told me that night, but when you didn’t seem to remember that either, I decided to better act as if it had never happened and just see where we’d go from there, ‘cause I could feel a sparkle between us. I just didn’t know if you still felt it.”

Harry’s eyes were soft, but a tad embarrassed and shy. Louis couldn’t help feel a warmth spread across his chest. “I felt it too, and that’s why I was so angry at you, ‘cause I had told you just days before how I felt about this whole situation, about Zorro, and right after that you distanced yourself from me and when I put the pieces together, I knew you had already figured it out by yourself, but why didn’t you tell me, Harry?” Louis didn’t want to feel like demanding anything from Harry, but he deserved an explanation.

“‘Cause I didn’t know!” Harry let his arms fall down again, placing them on his hips and huffing. “I mean, I didn’t understand. You were talking about us kissing and your luck being changed and you hating Zorro, _me,_ when we had just been about to kiss again. I was so confused and terrified that if what you were saying was the truth, then if we kissed again something bad would happen.” He closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. “I hadn’t even considered that my luck had changed because I met you, Louis. I only thought things had finally started working out for me, for whatever reason that was. I still don’t know why our luck was changed, but can you blame me? I’ve been a loser, an unlucky bastard for as long as I can recall, things were never on my side, but this past month’s been the best thing that’s ever happened, at Syco and especially with meeting you. I know it was selfish to hold on to it after I figured it out, but, really, I was still trying to understand how that had happened before I could even do anything about it, say give it back to you when I didn’t know how.”

It made sense, Louis considered. He had already thought about Harry’s point of view and it made sense. If for Louis things were confusing even with his friends explaining it to him, he couldn’t imagine how that had been for Harry to wrap it around his head that their luck had been twisted all on his own.

“Fair enough,” Louis nodded, swiping his fringe away from his forehead. “I understand, yes, but you can also understand me, can’t you? Why I’d been so pissed at you?”

“If our luck’s been twisted, yeah I can. I saw how bad things had been to you, Louis, and I just wanted to help ‘cause I care about you. I’ve experienced that first hand myself, for years. I never thought your misfortune had anything to do with me. And I’m sorry I’ve let you go through all of that for so long, I didn’t mean to.”

Louis shook his head, also shaking his hands in front of himself vehemently. “It wasn’t explicitly your fault. You never intended to steal my luck with a kiss, Harry, I know that.”

Harry’s eyes softened at that, with a happier gleam. “I am truly sorry, Louis.”

Louis sagged his shoulder, nervously smoothing his hands over his jumper, but before he could say anything, Harry suddenly tried to speak again.

“Is that– Are those reindeer– are they humping each other?” His eyes followed Louis’ movements, and he scrunched up his nose, trying to make out Louis’ jumper.

“Yeah,” Louis answered nonchalantly. “But let’s not focus on tho–”

“That’s not okay.” Harry shook his head in disgust.

Louis let out a chuckle at Harry’s incredulous expression. “Says the man with a walking Christmas Tree.” Louis pointed at Harry’s own jumper.

“At least mine’s appropriate, yours isn’t.” Harry’s voice sounded almost offended.

Louis laughed out loud and he could see Harry opening a smile at him, a sheepish one but that still made a dimple pop out in one of his cheeks. And oh, how had he missed that, missed their talks, their jokes and the feeling of being close to Harry, of making him happy.

And that was all that he wanted, that was what he was planning to do.

“Listen,” Louis recomposed himself, taking a breath before he continued, “I know that you’re sorry, Harry. I know it ‘cause I am too.”

“Louis, I understand. I would’ve been mad too if I found out someone had somehow stolen my luck,” Harry said, pulling at the sleeves of his jumper timidly, making himself look small in front of Louis, ashamed.

“No, that’s not–” Louis scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I mean, I’m also sorry for being so unreasonable and for screaming at you. But I’m apologising for taking it back.”

Harry’s eyebrows wrinkled so much Louis thought Harry would permanently have that look on his face. “What?”

“Harry, it’s clear we affect each other’s life with our luck. When one has it, the other doesn’t. When I kissed you, I got my luck back and because of that, all your misfortune came back. You’re suffering and in trouble ‘cause you don’t have my luck and I feel bad for taking it from you.”

“How can you say that, Louis? You can’t feel sorry for me for taking something that belongs to you! That’s your luck, I was the one who took it from you in the first place!”

“Yeah, that’s just my luck but… not anymore. Not that I need it that much anymore, anyway.”

Harry was shaking his head frantically. “Louis, you need your luck. Without it, you wouldn’t have gotten David Beckham’s interview again.”

“But without it, you’re gonna get fired!” Louis tried to reason. “And I can’t let you have that. I can’t let that happen knowing you’re gonna lose your job because of me, because I was selfish.”

“You weren’t selfish, Louis, you wer–”

“No,” he cut Harry off quickly. “I was. I always took this so-called luck I had for granted, and when I didn’t have it, all I wanted was to have it back ‘cause I thought that was what I needed to live a good life and to be happy. But I realised I don’t need it, ‘cause even now that I have it, I’m still not entirely happy.”

He took a step closer to Harry, making him startle at that. His eyes were glued to Louis, with such intensity, but also sadness, Louis didn’t know exactly what Harry was feeling, but he could see that he hadn’t understood what he had meant.

“I’m not entirely happy ‘cause I can see that you aren’t happy either, and to be honest, even if I was so unfortunate for a whole month, that month was also the happiest I had been ‘cause I had your joyful self by my side.”

Louis saw the moment it dawned on Harry. The other man gulped, breathing deeply and taking his glasses off as if to look at Louis without hiding himself.

“Louis, no–”

“I don’t care that I’m gonna fall on my arse a few times, that I’ll probably develop allergies from my dog, or that I’ll never get to interview anyone famous again and I’ll make a few slip-ups at work every now and then. If that means I’ll make things right for you, that you’ll get to experience happiness again, then I’m more than fine with it.”

Taking another step, Louis was completely inside Harry’s personal space, looking up at him. He dared to look up to the ceiling, only to notice there was a mistletoe hanging over them and wasn’t that just the most fucking cliche thing that could’ve happened to them?

Also, it was more than perfect. (Probably mistletoes would also have some sort of magic, who would know it? – Niall, Liam and Zayn, probably, who always had the answers for any mystical problem Louis had)

“Louis, I can’t– I can’t accept it,” Harry said, almost in a whisper, closing his eyes and shaking his head again.

“I’m not asking you to take it. I’m giving it to you, willingly.” Louis lifted himself up a bit to reach Harry’s height and without waiting for Harry to say anything back, he leaned in to catch Harry’s lips in his.

The feeling of their lips touching was electrifying one more time. It came back to Louis how that first time had been so special, so magical if he said so. The second time Louis had done it in a haste, only seeking to take his luck back and hadn’t even enjoyed it so outraged that he was.

Third time seemed to be a charm indeed. Now, Louis was kissing Harry because he wanted to, and he wanted to marvel in that feeling because he knew after doing it, he couldn’t do it again, not if he wanted Harry to lose his luck once again.

He led his hand to the nape of Harry’s neck and felt Harry holding him by his waist with both hands, glasses folded in one of them and his fingers digging into the fabric of his jumper as if also holding onto the feeling.

Louis sighed and parted his lips a bit and Harry understood the hint, moving his mouth against Louis’ and letting their tongues find their way to each other.

It sent a jolt through Louis’ body, his stomach dropping as they kissed deeper, tasting one another, but not desperately. It was just their tongues gliding against each other sweetly and calmly, but a contact that made Louis’ heart burst and the darkness behind his closed eyelids be filled with fireworks nonetheless.

He needed to come up for air and he knew once he did, he couldn’t lock their lips again, so he let Harry guide the kiss, savouring every last second of it, of how gentle Harry was, of how Harry seemed to never want to let Louis go from his embrace.

Finally, Louis pulled away, slowly, sucking a deep breath and licking over his lips trying to memorise Harry’s taste and touch.

“Louis,” Harry called, still not distancing himself.

“Don’t say anything. I don’t know how bad I can screw up anything right now.” He let out a small self-deprecating laugh, opening his eyes and looking directly at Harry’s green ones already watching him. “I wish there was a way for us to solve this without one hurting the other, but there isn’t. So for now, you keep it, ‘cause you deserve it. I’ve made use of it for long enough, and I want you to have it. I want you to have it ‘cause I–” Louis paused before he said something he couldn’t quite comprehend how he felt just yet. “‘Cause you’re kind, lovely and caring, and one of the best people I’ve ever met, Harry.” Louis lowered his hand to find Harry’s, squeezing it tightly.

Harry’s other hand came to rest over Louis’ cheek, his thumb rubbing over it gently. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me, Louis.”

The words made Louis’ chest hurt and his eyes get teary, and he knew that if he stood one more second that close to Harry, he would contradict himself and kiss him again and then he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

He smiled at Harry then, openly this time and took a step back, finally letting go of the other man.

“I’ll see you at work next week,” he said, his voice barely able to come out.

Harry looked at Louis with a smile on his face, one that made both his dimples show, but his eyes – his eyes watched Louis sadly.

Louis knew though that what he had done had been the best for them. He knew soon Harry would be happier with how things would turn around for him again. And that was what mattered the most to Louis, although he felt like his heart was shattered for letting Harry go, even if it was for their own good.

He walked back to the bar after tripping over his feet a few times and bumping into someone, making them spill their glass of champagne on the floor (he apologised but quickly left the scene, only to realise his shoes had been covered in champagne), spotting Niall alone there.

“Pint?” Niall offered, tilting his bottle to Louis.

“Nah.” He shook his head, trying to sit on the high stool but almost falling from it. Niall helped him steady himself, and then he leaned his head against the counter with his arms crossed under it.

“Was pub night too much for you yesterday you don’t feel like drinking again? C’mon, it’s a party, Tommo. A Syco party, yes, but a party nonetheless. Why are you so gloomy? Who were you talking to? Zayn and Liam said they’d go after you but I doubt it, they just wanted an excuse to find a place to hook up in peace.”

“I was with Harry.” Louis didn’t lift his head up to look at Niall.

Niall’s surprised squeal was enough to let Louis know Niall probably understood what had happened.

“You… talked?”

“We kissed.”

“Fuck.” Louis heard Niall drinking from his beer.

“Yeah.”

“So, now what?”

Louis sighed heavily, turning his head to face his friend. “Now I move on with my life, learning how to be an unlucky bastard again.”

 

*

 

There were some things Louis should’ve thought better of before doing after giving Harry his luck and therefore going back to the miserable unlucky funk he’d already been in once.

Getting a tattoo should totally be one of these things, let alone two.

It just felt right, though. He had left the Christmas party feeling so dejected, yet trying to be cheerful for Harry, knowing he had done the right thing. He hadn’t seen Harry after they kissed and so for the rest of the night, even with Niall trying to entertain him with his drunk self, or Liam and Zayn making a fool of themselves as somebody had caught them snogging senseless in the toilet, Louis wasn’t feeling so good after all. And so, going home and lying awake for most of the night had given Louis time to let it all sink in, to reconcile himself that life was what it was now – misfortune would be a part of him and there wasn’t much he could do without taking it from Harry and making the other man suffer in his place.

 _It is what it is_ , he had told himself and that had settled in his brain and so when he finally got up, he had made up his mind he wanted that tattooed on his skin. He had a collection of random tattoos on his body already, what difference would one more make? It would only remind him of the fate he had chosen for himself.

After taking a shower, having breakfast and walking Clifford outside even though the weather was getting colder and colder Louis hadn’t taken it into consideration and almost froze his balls off on the streets, he called the tattoo parlour he usually went to and they had a free spot in the afternoon, for his luck ( _ha ha_ ).

Telling the artist what he wanted didn’t take long and as Louis waited for him to write it down on the stencil, Louis looked around the place, spotting a few other drawings all over the walls. One in particular caught his attention – a horseshoe.

He inspected it close and the more he looked at it, the more it felt like a calling. Not that he actually believed there was anything that could help him with his bad luck now, but it was symbolic, wasn’t it? To have something on his body that would represent a good luck charm. It would probably make him look ridiculous, but now he couldn’t get it out of his head how that was also something that had a meaning to him. Louis brought the drawing over to Dave, the tattoo artist, and told him he wanted that too, near the other silly doodles he had on his right arm.

Sitting on the chair with his chest and arm exposed, Louis felt the thrill of the needle going through his skin and the pain was bearable. It was nothing compared to how much he had already hurt or knew he’d still hurt in the future.

“Hm, Louis?” Dave called after he had cleaned the skin over where he had just injected the ink on his chest and Louis frowned at the cautious tone the man had.

“Yeah?”

Dave let the needle on the table and scooted away from Louis on his swivel chair. “Mate, I messed up.”

Louis’ eyes widened, and he looked down at himself, trying to inspect what had gone wrong. He ran his eyes over the letters upside down. “It is _wheat_ …”

“What?! Why did you write an ‘E’, mate?!” Louis was alarmed.

Dave had the most horrific expression on his face. “I… I– I don’t know. I don’t know how, I’m sorry. One moment I was writing and the other I realised I had fucking written an ‘E’ instead of an ‘A’ first.”

“For fuck’s sake! Are you on something? Bloody fuck!” Louis got up and sat down on the chair, looking at himself on the mirror opposite to him. “You didn’t even stop to correct it! You just kept writing, what the hell! Now I have _wheat_ written instead of _what_ ! What the fucking hell!” Louis was exasperated, hand desperately pulling at his hair, shaking his head from one side to the other, not believing what he was reading written on his chest. “It is _wheat_ it is! Yeah, that serves me fucking right.”

Louis was out of his mind, he almost didn’t let Dave finish writing the rest of the sentence, but reckoned having only _“It is wheat”_ over his chest was worse than the full sentence altogether.

At least the horseshoe on his arm had been done correctly, but Louis would definitely sue Dave for that.

So yeah, probably getting a tattoo the day after not having his luck anymore hadn’t been a good idea. Also the fact that the horseshoe on his arm started itching like a bitch on Sunday and he scratched it over the plastic wrap hadn’t been ideal either.

But he knew all of that was due to his lack of luck, and he only resigned himself to the fact that those things wouldn’t be the only bad ones happening to him from then on.

Going back to work on Monday, Louis’ only relief was that there was just one more week before they would go on Christmas break and he could go back home in Doncaster and wouldn’t have to worry much about mocking anything up. He had at least left everything prepared to work on the final details of David Beckham’s interview and there wasn’t much that could go wrong with that anymore.

“Harry’s talking to Simon now,” Niall said as he knocked on Louis’ door that morning.

“I hope he found something to work on.” Louis sent Niall a crooked smile and Niall took a step inside the office, coming closer and placing a hand over his shoulder as Louis turned his attention to his computer again, trying to rewrite the article for the tenth time after always managing to turn off the stabiliser under the table and shutting his computer down without properly saving his work.

“He looked more cheerful this morning, he even left those ugly glasses behind, so I guess what you did worked out.”

“What worked?” Stan asked curiously from his desk.

Louis sighed. “Harry and I... there was something I needed to give him, and I guess that can help him keep his job.” He settled with that because explaining the whole luck and fate twist was too much for him.

“Let’s hope so.” Stan smiled enthusiastically before he resumed typing on his keyboard again.

“If what happened to me this weekend is anything to go by,” Louis spoke again, almost in a whisper so Stan wouldn’t pay attention to him, and pointing to his own chest, “then I guess it certainly worked.”

Niall squeezed his shoulder. “Wheat!” He still joked and Louis smacked his hand away.

“Hiya,” Harry’s voice came from the door and Louis quickly turned his head around to face him.

“Hi,” he answered with a comforting smile on his face and his tone hopeful.

He hadn’t talked to Harry that morning yet and the sight of him somehow brought Louis both joy because he knew how he felt for Harry now, and a bittersweetness at the same time, because he knew that he couldn’t have what he wanted from Harry, not if he took his luck away again.

“So, how did it go?” Niall asked and Louis could see his mate was also eager to find out the answer to that.

“You’ll have to tolerate me for the foreseeable future, Horan,” Harry mocked, but very weakly.

“He accepted your idea?” Niall almost jumped into Harry’s direction, grabbing him by the shoulder and enveloping him into a tight embrace.

“Yeah.” Harry nodded, hugging Niall back but keeping his eyes locked on Louis with a lopsided smile.

“Fuck, that’s awesome!” Niall cheered, letting go of Harry and opening a big smile at him.

“Congrats, mate!” Stan also congratulated him, sending Harry a thumbs up from his chair.

“Thanks,” Harry said timidly, still looking at Louis.

It was not that Louis didn’t know what to say. He was happy for Harry, over ecstatic even, but that only confirmed that all this luck and fate talk really was messing with their lives and there was no way for one to be completely happy if the other wasn’t somewhat miserable. Fucking Yin and Yang.

“Well done, Harry,” Louis finally spoke trying to keep an enthusiastic smile on his face. “What was your grand idea to propose to Simon?”

Harry stepped aside from Niall, coming forward to stand in front of Louis properly. “I suggested I’d keep a monthly themed playlist. If he wanted, he could go through the songs himself if there was any possible backlash in case people didn’t like them, but he said that was way out of his area of expertise, he could entrust Niall to supervise me.” Harry looked back at Niall and winked at him.

“Nice!” Niall made a victorious gestured with his arm.

“And he went along with it?” Louis was curious because that seemed too simple and too easy for Simon to accept after the whole ordeal he had made about firing Harry.

Harry shrugged, looking sheepishly at Louis. “He really enjoyed my first playlist idea. Suppose he must’ve been in a bad mood last week, we know how unpredictable he can be.”

Louis shook his head, chuckling softly because he knew that was not it. But he left it at that, probably aware that Harry was only saying that because Stan was still paying attention to their conversation.

“And what was your pitch for the first playlist?” Louis questioned, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“[Songs about luck](https://open.spotify.com/user/stephvicente/playlist/071Dtrjch8vEoGb52LmZUH?si=zSK0CxLGQ8CViAuUEmvsSw).”

Niall almost choked on thin air as he tried to laugh. Louis closed his eyes, scrunching up his nose trying to contain himself from snorting.

“That seems interesting,” Stan chimed in and Louis looked at Harry again, to see him with a sly smile on his face.

“Spot on, Harold.”

“Thanks.” Harry strode closer to Louis with purpose. “I guess you can have it back now.”

Louis gulped down, seeing the serious and intense look Harry had in his green eyes.

He shook his head though. “No, I can’t risk it,” he said, trying to sound confident too.

“Louis–”

“No, listen.” Louis got up, taking Harry by the arm and leading him to the door, away from Stan’s nosy arse. “I can’t risk putting you under another terrifying situation like that again. I already told you, I don’t need it that much anymore. Whatever fate and the universe want to hit me with, I can take it. You deserve it more than I do now, Harry.” He took a deep breath, making sure he sounded resolute, convincing enough.

Harry regarded Louis intensively, nervously licking his lips. “Is that what you really want?” He asked, his voice unsure.

Louis nodded finally. “Yes.”

Harry's lips turned up into a small but sweet smile. “Thank you, Louis.”

Louis let out a heavy sigh as Harry stepped away and started walking back to his own office.

Even if it hurt that things would never work out between them, Louis wouldn’t go back on his decision. Things had turned around for Harry and that was all Louis had hoped for. He would have to settle for that, to see Harry happy and to have him as a friend even though he would get weak in the knees every time Harry spoke with him, would as much look his way with those charming green eyes, dimpled smile, soft heart and captivating personality.

If being in love hurt that much, it hurt for a good cause.

“You’re gonna be alright.” Louis felt a hand over his shoulder and he turned to see Niall standing behind him. “You’re doing a good thing, Tommo.”

“I hope so.”

 

*

 

For the rest of the week, Louis tried to go on with his life normally, trying to deal with whatever mishap happening to him as if that wasn’t the end of the world – not even when he spilt the boiling water for his tea over his hand one morning; when he almost submitted the wrong version of the David Beckham article to go to the final revision; when he had food poisoning and spent almost a whole afternoon in the toilet, or when Clifford had escaped from his leash and Louis spent an hour looking for him only to find his gigantic goofy dog humping a tree near his building, and therefore getting late for work.

It was hard, though, trying to see above it all and still be positive about his life. That was what he had chosen, but if it meant that he’d get to see everything working in Harry’s favour, then Louis counted that as a win.

They had gone back to talking to each other normally albeit Louis trying to keep his feelings tucked inside, especially when Harry would try to help him and Louis could see that it was hard for Harry to keep his distance as well. Even being caring and attentive to Louis, sharing soft looks and sometimes lingering touches, Harry was also cautious and a bit distant and Louis tried not to feel sad about it, about their unspoken feelings and the what-ifs that would go through his mind occasionally.

No, he wouldn’t step back and change their luck again just because he wanted to be with Harry. He wasn’t sure how that would go down, what would happen to them, so it was safer to keep his distance and pine alone.

That’s why Louis decided that staying away, going back to Doncaster on the weekend would help him a lot to settle his mind and find his footing again before coming back to work after the New Year’s to start afresh and more prepared to deal with and accept his misfortune.

But going back home wouldn’t be as easy as he had anticipated. He had planned to hit the road on Saturday morning, looking forward to spending some more time with his family, but Niall had tried to convince him that no, they couldn’t let Louis leave without celebrating his birthday properly.

“We’ll use our happy hour hangout to celebrate it, c’mon Tommo. Let’s go out tonight, you’ll be able to get proper smashed without feeling guilty. You can go back home on Sunday!” He had said when Louis pointed out that he couldn’t get drunk that night otherwise he’d get the worst hangover and wouldn’t be able to drive on the next morning. Zayn and Liam agreed with Niall and persuaded Louis to accept the invitation.

That’s how on Friday night, after going back home to change his work clothes, Louis left his flat and headed to the Irish pub Niall had suggested for them to go – The Shamrock. The night was chill, possibly the coldest one so far, considering it was already Winter Solstice. Obviously Louis had forgotten about that little detail, because even though he had left home prepared for the cold, he didn’t consider the possibility of it snowing that night, but when he was just a few blocks away from the pub (which wasn’t really that far from his house, that’s why he decided to go on foot) he found himself on the street with thick snowflakes falling on his head as he kept on walking.

He tightened his thick furry denim jacket against himself, his hands curled into fists inside the pockets, his jaw trembling and his whole body shivering as he finally reached the pub, looking forward to the warmth of the establishment once inside.

The place was relatively empty for a Friday night, but Louis rather liked the cosy environment, opposite to the full places he and his mates usually frequented.

“Louis!” Liam called out loud and Louis spotted him, along with Zayn and Niall sitting inside a booth by the far corner of the place.

“Mate, are you alright?” Zayn asked, furrowing his brows as Louis approached them, his teeth still chattering and rubbing his hands against each other trying to warm himself.

“It started snowing just as I was walking down here.” Louis took a seat inside the booth, breathing out loudly. “Alright, you wanted me to get smashed for my birthday, innit? No better time than now to help me warm up.”

“That’s the spirit, Tommo! You’re only twenty-seven once!” Niall slammed his pint against the table, making the other three lads laugh as they ordered another round for Louis.

The place started to fill up as the time went by and Louis and his friends kept on talking. Louis noticed that there were a few coworkers at the pub and it didn’t take long, even a couple of pints in and his head already a tad woozy, for him to figure out that possibly Niall (yeah, that had to be Niall’s doing) had extended the invitation to their other Syco friends.

Stan had come to talk to them for a few minutes, Greg had wished Louis a happy birthday quickly, saying he couldn’t stay longer but had wanted to celebrate it too, and Bebe had ordered a new round for everybody at the pub as a gift for Louis.

“Who else did you invite?” Louis laughed, shaking his head after Niall had started another round of “Happy Birthday” singing in his honour.

“Not many people. Simon’s not coming if that’s what you’re worried about.” He winked at Louis.

“Thank fuck.” Zayn lifted both his hands up in gratitude. “I don’t think I can face Simon outside work again for a long time.” He placed a hand around Liam’s shoulder, bringing his boyfriends closer to him.

“Next time, try keeping it inside your pants at your boss’ house, mate.” Louis joked, poking his tongue out at both of them as Liam gave him the finger.

Niall patted Zayn on the shoulder and took a sip from his beer, looking around the place. Louis tried to follow his gaze but couldn’t see what Niall was looking at or for.

Suddenly, Niall stopped and put his bottle down on the table and coughed, clearing his throat. “Alright, I think it’s time for another round, I’m gonna get it for us.”

Louis frowned at him, looking at his still almost full pint. “You’ve just started drinking this one, Horan.”

“Never too early to order another drink,” he said standing up and shot a not so discreet look at Liam and Zayn.

“Oh, yeah, I’ll go to the loo while Niall gets the drinks.” Liam seemed to catch Niall’s look and slid over his seat to exit the booth.

“I’ll go with you,” Zayn quickly said, not looking at Louis and taking Liam’s hand in his.

“You guys are a fucking joke, can’t even hide the fact you’re gonna have a quickie.” Louis rolled his eyes laughing at his friends but, at the same time, a little suspicious of them suddenly leaving the table.

He didn’t pay them much attention as they left, taking another gulp from his beer, not minding the amount of alcohol he was drinking. He was tipsy, but not smashed yet and that was good, that meant he could still enjoy the night with his friends for a little longer.

Just as he was about to turn to see if Niall was indeed getting them drinks at the bar, Louis felt a hand over his shoulder and he lifted his head to see Gemma standing behind him.

“Hi, Louis! Happy birthday!” She said, open smile on her red lips.

Louis smiled back at her and as he stood up to give her a hug, he noticed Harry coming towards them, a few steps behind.

Niall had invited them, obviously. How could have Louis not thought about that?

“Thanks,” he replied, embracing her quickly. “‘S not really my birthday today, just wanted to celebrate with the lads before going to Doncaster for the Holidays.”

“Isn’t it bad luck to celebrate it earlier?” She asked, placing both hands over Louis’ shoulder and giving him an intriguing look.

Louis chuckled. “Wouldn’t know about that. Not that it actually matters,” he added, more as a reminder to himself than for Gemma to understand.

“Hey, Louis!” Harry finally caught up with his sister and walked closer to Louis as he took his green beanie off and ruffled his long hair, letting the bit of snow that had gathered in it fall. Gemma stepped side, letting Harry greet Louis as he extended his hand out to him.

“Thanks for coming,” Louis said, shaking Harry’s hand and trying to contain a wide smile from spreading across his face as he looked at Harry, at his beautiful self standing right in front of him, a thrill running through his skin as their hands touched for a moment.

“You could've said it was your birthday. Had to hear it from Niall,” Harry tsked playfully.

“‘S not until Monday, that’s why I didn’t say anything.” Louis shrugged and kept his eyes fixed on Harry, who was also regarding him softly.

“Hm, I guess I’ll get a drink for myself,” Gemma said, making Louis remember she was standing right beside them. “Want anything, Haz?”

“Er, no. I’m good. Gonna wait here.” Harry shook his head and Gemma sent them both a knowing look before smiling one last time and turning away from them in the direction of the bar. “You don’t mind, do you?” Harry directed the question to Louis.

“No, not at all,” Louis answered, gesturing for Harry to take a seat at the booth. “Niall’s at the bar and Lord knows where Liam and Zayn are,” he laughed, probably understanding now why their friends had suddenly disappeared. If this was set up, Louis would tell them off afterwards.

He sat beside Harry without noticing, only because that had been where he was sat before. He hoped Harry wouldn't mind, and also hoped he could control himself beside the man. He had done a decent job the previous days, keeping himself together and not even making any flirty comments around him.

“So, you’re having fun?” Harry asked, smiling softly at Louis. That damn dimple would be Louis’ downfall, though, he was sure.

“Trying to.” Louis grabbed his beer and took a sip. “I’m trying not to drink so much as so not have another major hangover, but yeah, having a good time with the lads.”

“Great.” Louis saw Harry fidgeting with the coaster left on the table instead of finding something else to say to him.

Louis didn’t want there to be awkward moments between him and Harry, but he also didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know why Harry had decided to stay there sat with Louis at the booth instead of getting a drink for himself. Louis didn’t know if there really was something to be said between them.

“Are you heading back home with Gemma for Christmas?” He opted to make small talk then.

“Hm, yeah, probably.” Harry’s eyes didn’t land on Louis when he spoke and Louis noticed that Harry seemed a bit nervous.

“Are you both staying here in London? Thought Gemma always went back to Cheshire to see your mum,” Louis pointed out, confused.

“No, I mean, she’s going back, yeah.” Harry shook his head and then finally lifted his eyes to face Louis. “I’m not sure _I’m_ going back.”

“Why?”

“It depends.”

Harry’s vagueness was already making Louis anxious, even more with the way Harry hadn’t taken his eyes off Louis as he spoke. “On what?”

The other man took a long breath and gulped down before he answered. “Depends on what you’re gonna say.”

Louis knitted his brows, because what? What did that even mean? “Have you been drinking before coming to the pub? That’s why you didn’t want a drink? ‘Cause what you’re saying makes no sense. What do I have to do with you going back home or not, Harry?”

“No, haven’t been drinking. Wanted to talk to you sober enough.” Harry cleared his throat and scooted closer to Louis, close enough for their thighs to touch.

Louis inhaled heavily, concentrating on not letting Harry affect him that much.

“What are you on about, Harold?” He held his beer bottle tightly to have something to focus on other than Harry.

Harry shifted again in his seat, this time to turn and face Louis completely.

“I’ve been thinking a lot, Louis, since Monday about this whole luck thing between us.”

Louis started shaking his head, ready to talk Harry out of any attempt to convince him he didn’t need his luck, but Harry placed a hand over his knee, causing Louis to lose his train of thought.

“No, you’ve gotta listen to me now, Louis, please. I listened to you and as much as I didn’t want to take your luck, you gave it to me and if that doesn’t make you the most selfless person I know, then I don’t know who that’d be, but I just can’t, can’t keep this to myself knowing it’s causing you pain now. You see how this works both ways, right?”

Louis swallowed dryly because he knew Harry was about to give his own speech back to him and Louis wasn’t ready to fight him on that, couldn’t fight back.

“I chose to give it to you. That’s all I could do after almost making you lo–”

“You can’t go around making decisions for both of us.” Harry shook his head sadly but squeezing his hand on Louis’ knee. “I understand why you did it, but did you even consider that I didn’t want it? That I’d rather see you happy instead? That seeing you beat yourself up, seeing you distance yourself from me, seeing you fighting and denying what we feel for each other… it has hurt me more than everything else bad that’s happened to me in almost twenty five years?”

Louis was not expecting those confessions. It made his heart skip a beat, his brain probably stopped processing Harry’s words, trying to put together what he had meant with all of that.

“Louis, I know we started this unexpectedly and I don’t know if it was really fate, destiny and our luck that brought us together, but all I know is that I can’t, I just can’t ignore that this all happened for a reason. I might’ve taken your luck accidentally, but that was not what made me happy for the past couple of months. It was the fact that I had found you.”

Harry led his other hand to meet Louis’ on the beer bottle, making Louis let go of it and hold one of them, lacing their fingers.

“And I don’t care about this stupid luck. I don’t care if I lose my job, I don’t care if I’ll go every day of my life tripping over my own feet or embarrassing myself. Not as long as I have you.”

Harry’s eyes were glinting with such intensity it made Louis’ legs tremble and he was sure that if he wasn’t sitting down, he wouldn’t be able to stand still at all.

“Harry, you can’t say this. Look how much better your life’s gotten–”

Harry huffed impatiently. “Louis, for fuck’s sake, can’t you understand I’m trying to say I’m in love with you? That I’d throw this luck away in a heartbeat if it meant I’d able to be with you. And please, tell me that’s also what you’ve been thinking, ‘cause I see you, Louis. I see you debating with yourself and holding yourself back every time you’re around me.”

It was like all air had been taken from Louis’ lungs because he couldn’t breathe right, not with Harry saying he was in love with him. He had to close his eyes for a second to gather himself and finally speak, try to speak without Harry interrupting him and he knew what he had to say.

“All I want is for you to be happy, Harry, ‘cause yeah, I’ve fallen for you too. Amongst the series of unfortunate events that’s happened to me, you were always there taking care of me. You and your stupid dimples, and incredibly gorgeous hair, and contagious smile, and catchy hipster songs, and miraculous backpack. I fell in love with all of that, all of you. You were there for me when I needed the most and I wanted to give it back to you somehow and I thought that giving you my luck again was the only way to do it so I wouldn’t have to see you suffer any more.”

It was Louis’ time to shift in his seat and turn completely to face Harry. His other hand moved to Harry’s face, smoothly running his thumb over his jaw.

“But I see that all of that has only caused us more suffering, ‘cause I want to be with you, and I just don’t know how to knowing that I’d cause you even more pain.”

“I won’t be in pain if I have you, Louis. I don’t need your luck to be happy. I need you.”

Harry closed his eyes, basking into the feeling of Louis caress.

“I don’t know how to do this though,” Louis confessed nervously. “I want it, so bad. I want you so bad, Harry, but how–”

“Shh.” Harry opened his eyes, a lovely smile opening at Louis. “How about we don’t think about it? I’m tired of thinking and wondering and letting luck and fate control us. How about we just do what we feel like doing?”

Harry leaned down, not waiting for Louis’ answer. Louis knew there wasn’t one. Not verbally anyway.

He untangled his other hand from Harry’s hold and led it to cup Harry’s face with both hands as he met Harry’s lips.

Kissing Harry was an otherworldly experience. There weren’t many words that could describe what he felt every time. The goosebumps were there, his heartbeat escalating too, as well as the sweetness of Harry’s touch melting Louis’ entire body, not making Louis think straight, but sobering him up completely at the same time.

“Harry, are you–” Louis pulled away for a moment. “Are you sure?”

For all he knew, he had his luck back again, but if Harry was really in for it, really wanted Louis despite having his luck or not, then Louis couldn’t give a fuck as to whom would have it or not.

“Absolutely.” Harry shot him a crooked smile before seeking Louis’ mouth again, moving his hand from Louis’ knee, up to his thigh and then to his waist, making a shiver go through Louis’ spine.

He kissed Louis more intensely this time, pressing their mouths together, not taking long to ask permission to deepen it, his tongue opening their lips apart.

Louis inhaled pleasantly, savouring the touch and letting Harry take him apart with every swift swipe of his tongue, this time freely. They allowed themselves to break apart a few times to change the angle, to adjust themselves in front of each other, for Louis to move his hand up to Harry’s neck, pulling at his locks, or for Harry to move his other hand under Louis’ jacket and jumper, seeking contact with Louis’ skin.

They stayed that way for a while and Louis had lost track of who had kissed who, of who had whose luck anymore.

It had gotten lost between their feelings and if Louis admitted, it was the best sensation ever, not feeling like he had to hold himself back, relenting to Harry’s intoxicating and loving touch.

Louis’ heart felt like leaping out of his chest when they finally pulled away from each other. Harry led his hand to cradle Louis’ face, tracing his thumb over Louis’ jaw, lips, cheeks, under his eyes, and Louis could notice he had gotten a tad teary.

“Are you okay?” Harry had soft green eyes watching Louis attentively and Louis swore he could cry again, basking into Harry’s attention for fucking forever.

“More than okay.” Louis smiled, going for a quick open-mouthed peck, as he couldn’t contain the happiness spreading across his body.

Harry laughed, shaking his head and letting go of Louis’ hold, only to envelope him properly into a hug, kissing his cheek, then moving down to his neck, mouthing gently at Louis’ skin. “Then I am too.”

Louis closed his eyes at the sensation. “Who do you think has it now?”

Harry sucked a deep breath before distancing himself, making Louis look at him again. “Does it really matter?” He cocked a brow at him but moved to fit himself by Louis’ side, his arm moving behind Louis’ back to hold him by the waist, bringing him closer again.

Louis shrugged, taking Harry’s hand in his and entwining their fingers on top of the table. “Not really, but it could be fun trying to figure it out.”

Harry kissed Louis’ cheek again then moved to leave a quick kiss on Louis’ lips, lingering on the touch, sucking on Louis’ bottom lip before biting down on it softly.

“I’d say I just gave it back to you now. Could keep giving it to you forever.”

Louis laughed out loud, blushing under Harry’s goofiness. He squeezed their hands together, just to reassure himself that he could have that now.

“What if it’s split? Half-half?”

“Oh my God, Louis, will ya please shut up.” Harry didn’t wait for Louis to say anything else before locking their lips one more time.

“Alright, I see you have solved this whole luck thing between you two then.” Niall’s voice interrupted them, making them break apart.

Louis took his attention from Harry to look at Niall, only to see his friend slump on the seat opposite to them with a dopey and sad expression.

“Everything okay, Niall?” Harry asked.

“Oi, don’t mind me. I’m peachy. Keep on snogging each other, just like everyone else seem to be doing around me lately. Zayn and Liam probably fucked off to shag each other too.”

Louis was confused by Niall’s snappish reply. “You’ve had too much to drink now, Horan. You’re getting moody and nobody likes a moping Irish lad.”

“I’m just expressing my true feelings, sod off.” Niall took a gulp from his beer, clearly irritated. “I’m just fucking tired, you know? I know I don’t have this luck thing you two have, but sometimes it just feels like I’m the most unfortunate person in the world. Lonely, to be more precise. With me is not a question of actually having bad luck or not, it’s only that I know when I’m doing well at work, my love life sucks. I can’t have both and that’s what’s going on right now. I’m so fucking tired of being lonely. Malik and Payno have each other, you two apparently are in love too, and here I am, the single one of the group, never able to find anyone.”

Niall could be drunk, but his speech was very eloquent and Louis felt sorry for his friend because he knew how much Niall has complained of never being able to pull anyone for a long time. He wanted Niall to be happy, to find a girl or a boy who would give him some love because the bastard deserved it. He was one of the loveliest people Louis knew and he himself was tired of seeing Niall heartbroken.

Louis regarded Niall’s deprecating self on the other side of the table and a sudden thought occurred to him.

He squeezed Harry’s hand again, trying to call his attention.

“What?” Harry looked at him with such sad eyes Louis knew he was also feeling sorry for Niall.

“I have a plan,” he said mischievously, wiggling his eyebrows at Harry.

It took a second for Harry’s forehead to unwrinkle from curiosity to widening his eyes in realisation.

“You think…?”

“Yup.”

Louis didn’t need to say anything else as Harry smiled at him, letting go of his hand and sliding on the booth seats all the way to the other side to meet Niall. Louis got up and took a couple of steps to find a place to sit by Niall’s other side. “Scoot over, Nialler.”

Niall looked confused at him, but gave him space, settling himself in between both Harry and Louis. “What are you on about?”

“We reckon it’s your time to shine now, Horan.” Louis smiled widely at Niall.

“You see,” Harry started explaining, “since we don’t need it anymore, we figured there’s somebody else who could have a better use for it.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Niall looked from Harry to Louis exasperatedly.

“It won’t hurt, Niall. Just stand still,” Louis informed, winking at Harry who only nodded at him and at the same time, they planted a kiss on each one of Niall’s cheeks.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Niall exclaimed, pushing them both away with his hands, making Louis almost fall on the floor, but he managed to hold himself on the edge of the table, laughing to himself as he made his way back to his seat. Harry was cackling, both hands over his chest as he tried to sit properly again and slide back to Louis’ side.

“No, seriously, what the fuck, lads?” Niall continued, grabbing his bottle and standing up. “Are you guys having me on? Is this some kind of secret threesome fantasy you two just found out you have? ‘Cause I’m having none of that. Not if it’s out of pity anyway.” He shook his head, taking a step back from the table.

“We just want you to be happy, Niall,” Harry reasoned cheerfully, putting an arm over Louis’ shoulder. His green eyes were shining, full of glee.

“Yeah, right. Fuck off, both of you. I’m heading out of he–” He flipped them off, swinging his beer to take another sip and turning around when Louis noticed someone walk behind Niall without him seeing, properly bumping into them, making them drop the pint they had in hand.

“Oh fuck, I’m sorry,” Niall said, putting some distance between him and the man – Louis identified the person, a tall and brunet bloke – trying to avoid spilling his own beer on him.

“I didn’t see you, ‘s my fault. No problem.” The bloke smiled at Niall and Louis had never seen such bright and so white smile before.

Harry poked Louis’ on his side as Louis noticed Niall had gotten speechless, only able to look back at the man, dumbstruck.

“That’s– it’s– well, no worries,” Niall mumbled and it was clear he was distracted by the other man’s beauty.

“I’m Shawn.” Tall bloke extended a hand to Niall, introducing himself.

Louis heard Niall clear his throat before taking the man’s hand into his. “I’m Niall. Would you like me to get another drink for you?”

“Smooth,” Louis whispered and Harry chuckled beside him, kissing his cheek.

“Guess it worked,” he said close to Louis’ ear.

“We’re not completely useless without our luck, see.”

Louis saw Niall leading Shawn towards the bar, but not before giving Harry and Louis his middle finger again, also mouthing a “thank you” at them.

Louis could feel Harry smiling when he spoke again. “No, we’re not. But we don’t need it anymore, anyway. We’re already the luckiest.”

And yes, Louis felt like the luckiest person when Harry held him again and kissed him one more time that night, hoping to never feel any different for as long as he had Harry by his side.


	7. Epilogue

**One Year Later**

 

“We're fucking walking cliches,” Louis said, laughing slightly. He was sitting on a stool next to Harry, holding his right hand with both his hands as Harry had his left arm lying on a table as the tattoo artist worked on his wrist.

Harry tried to contain a snort and keep his arm still. “Do you really wanna talk about all the cliche things we’ve gone through right now?” He shook his head, poking his tongue out at Louis. “If anything, I’m only making it a permanent reminder of our sappiness.”

“Sappy walking cliches.” Louis rolled his eyes at Harry and puffed out loud.

“You were the one who started both of them, by the way.” Harry bit down on his lip as he felt the needle dig through his skin with more force right on his bone. “You started with the horseshoe and you upped the sappiness just now with the quotation marks.” He let out a sharp exhale as the tattooer pulled out the needle to apply more ink into it.

“Both were very well-thought tattoo ideas that have importance to me.” Louis shrugged, trying to look nonchalantly. Harry could see through his boyfriend’s bullshit though.

“You literally sat beside me two minutes ago and said you wanted the quotation marks. That’s the first time I’ve heard you mention it.” Harry chuckled, which earned him a harder squeeze on his hand from Louis in retaliation.

Louis raised a brow at him. “Who says I haven’t been thinking about it for a while?”

 _Unlikely_ , Harry thought as he considered the past year he and Louis had been together.

Things for them had fallen into place after they decided to finally leave all that luck and fate thing between them behind (and giving it to Niall, who seemed to be enjoying his luck in love with Shawn for longer than anyone would’ve guessed). It was as if all of that was holding them back from getting together, and the moment they gave themselves the reins of their own destiny, choosing to stay together despite not having any luck anymore – that was when Harry truly believed he had become the luckiest person in the world.

Having Louis by his side was the best thing that had happened to him. That night at the bar wasn’t the start for them, it was only the progression of everything that had happened to them, the evolution of their friendship and their feelings for each other, even though there had been a few bumpy moments in between.

Harry knew what he felt for Louis was something unique and strong from the moment he had kissed him at the Halloween party, but he had to put his feelings on hold when things had gone down badly between them after that. It was hard to pine for Louis without knowing if he remembered any of what had happened, or if he even felt anything for Harry after getting to know him properly. It was even harder when he couldn’t understand Louis’ signals right. Gemma had to suffer for a few weeks, hearing Harry babble about how much he liked Louis, also trying to tell Harry to act on it without understanding why he kept saying he _just couldn’t._ It was a hell of almost two months for Harry even though things were supposed to happen perfectly for him since he had Louis’ luck.

That didn’t matter though. He didn’t mind the luck at all as long as he had Louis with him. And that seemed to prove itself right. For the Christmas break, they decided to take it slow since Louis was going back to Doncaster to spend the Holidays with his family. Before talking to Louis, Harry had told himself that he would stay around until he convinced the other man that they could be together, but as his plan had worked on his first try, all he could do was go back with Gemma to Holmes Chapel and wait until they were back in London to see where things with Louis would go (not that the fact they had texted each other incessantly during the Holidays hadn’t helped them figure out and be sure of what they felt with how they already missed each other terribly even if they had been apart only for three days).

So, there wasn’t much doubt of where they stood when Harry asked Louis to date him on New Year’s Eve, and Louis said yes as they shared their midnight kiss (Harry had a feeling they always had important kisses on occasions that held such mystic or monumental meanings, so Louis saying they were fucking walking cliches was spot on). And then the rest, as they’d say, was history.

History of how two people, who apparently now had normal luck as anyone else, had managed to fit perfectly into each other’s lives. The feeling that they belonged together grew as each day passed, the connection they had before, with Harry always promptly ready to help Louis when he’d hurt himself was still there, stronger than ever.

As ordinary lucky people, they had their good and bad days, nothing too extreme as they had experienced for those two months, but eventually things would happen to them, and if they were bad, they were right there by each other’s side – whenever Louis had a cold, Harry would take care of him, sometimes anticipating when Louis would sneeze and handing him a Kleenex; or when Harry would almost trip walking down the street and Louis would always hold him by the arm (one time not being quite successful when Harry fell and scratched his elbow, but Louis had taken care of it carefully afterwards); or when Evie and Clifford would unleash hell on earth playing with each one whenever they brought their pets to each other’s flats, chaos installing as they would knock over objects and furniture around the place; or the time when they tried to have a romantic afternoon having a picnic at Hyde Park, only to be greeted with a sudden rain that drenched all of their food and ruined the date.

Obviously they also had great and lucky times too, like the time Louis had been given a pair of tickets to a Manchester United match and took Harry with him, or when Harry had been invited personally by The Script to watch one of their concerts in London (with Louis, of course) after he wrote a review on their latest album for Syco’s music blog.

They made special memories together, bad and good ones, but ones that helped bring them together even more, ones that made Harry sure he loved Louis deeply and that the feeling was mutual from Louis’ side as they got to know each other so well, spending so much time together that sometimes it was like they had always been an item, as if they had known each other from past lives.

And so, after one year together, Harry had no doubt he knew Louis like the palm of his hand, knew how he acted and thought, knew his secrets, insecurities, aspirations and dreams. That’s why Louis saying he wanted to get the quotation marks had been a surprise to him, because they had discussed tattoos before, had explored their own tattoos and their meanings, had said what others tattoos they’d like to get and also shared the thought of tattooing things that meant something for both of them – which was the reason Harry found himself getting a four-leaf clover on his wrist close to his silly doodles (the Aquarius symbol, the padlock, and a small arrow), on his birthday.

Louis had the horseshoe and when Harry found out why Louis had tattooed it, he kept thinking he wanted something with that sort of meaning too. It was when they had gone back to the pub Niall had chosen the year before for Louis’ birthday celebration again, that Harry had seen the shamrock symbol with a horseshoe as the pub’s logo and had the idea. He could get a shamrock tattoo, it could be symbolic too, but he wasn’t Irish and didn’t want Niall to think that it was because of him either. Also, the three-leaf clover wasn’t really a luck charm – the four-leaf clover was and so he settled for it as his tattoo, only talking to Louis about it a few days later.

“Are we going for matching tattoos, is that it?” Louis had questioned as they were lying in bed after their private celebration of the New Year, no better opportunity for Harry to tell Louis about it as their one-year anniversary gift.

“I wouldn’t say it’s matching.” Harry turned around in Louis’ arms to face him. “It’s more of complementary, innit?” He traced the words written on Louis’ bare chest, always laughing internally when he’d get to the “wheat” part.

Louis hummed thoughtfully, fingers threading through Harry’s newly short hair. “Suppose so.” He smiled, bringing one of Harry’s hand up to kiss his knuckles, his thumb rubbing over Harry’s “I can’t change” words on his wrist.

The memory came to Harry as Louis was looking at him mischievously at the tattoo parlour and just then he understood why Louis had wanted the question marks.

“Oh, it just hit me.”

“Yeah, yeah, you just clicked that, right?” Louis opened a timid smile at him and Harry couldn’t help the intense feeling of fondness from spreading through him.

Harry once explained to Louis why he had gotten “I can’t change” tattooed. There was a time when he was still at Uni when he thought his life was going downhill, nothing good was happening or was in his favour. As much as he tried, as much as he pushed himself, he would always find himself making the wrong decisions and every aspect of his life was going sour – his thesis had been rejected two times, he couldn’t find an internship, and his flatmate was going to move out and he had no one else to split the bills. He had then accepted himself as the most unfortunate person he knew, and changing that wasn’t in his hands – therefore the phrase on his wrist.

“Lou, babe.” Harry shook his head in awe, slowly leaning down to rest his forehead against Louis’. “Why?”

“‘Cause I feel you, Haz. I know what you’ve gone through. I experienced the same things as you did and when I thought I’d have to give up my feelings for you just so you could be happy, I had accepted my fate as that unlucky person too, thinking I couldn’t change things anymore, I couldn't change who I had decided to be. So, I figured it made sense. You already have the words in your skin, I’m just quoting you.”

“But we’ve changed.” Harry took a deep breath before he replied, feeling the needle working on his wrist again. “We’ve changed together. I don’t feel like the tattoo represents me that much anymore.”

Louis shrugged. “Still doesn’t change the fact that it was a part of who we were, even if briefly for me, but that somehow connected us together. I think it makes sense since you’re getting a tattoo to complement one I already have, so I could do the same for you.”

Harry licked his lips, pressing them together as though to suppress the pain the tattoo gun was giving him. “I was thinking of changing it, actually,” he confessed, apprehensive of what Louis’ reaction to that new piece of information would be.

Louis only sent him an intrigued look.

“Not saying you shouldn’t get the quotation marks. If you want to, go for it. I’m gonna love it anyway, but–” Harry squeezed Louis’ hand again when the needle pressed against another part of his bone.

“Fucking hell, Harold.” Louis laughed painfully, letting go of Harry’s hand and massaging his own.

“Is it hurting?” The tattooer – Harry was certain Liam Sparkles was his name, he hadn’t paid much attention to when he introduced himself – asked as he stopped applying pressure on Harry’s skin to look at him, concerned.

“No, it’s fine. Just keep going at it,” Harry lied. It was hurting, but he could handle it. The pain from a tattoo was always alright for him.

“But?” Louis instigated when Harry got his attention back on him as Liam resumed working on the tattoo.

“But I was gonna ask you what you think of nautical symbols?”

Louis frowned for a moment. “Not opposed to them. Go on.”

Harry sucked a deep breath. He didn’t plan on telling Louis about his idea right there, but since he had been the one to start on the topic and Louis was willing to listen, he thought he’d better spill it out.

“You’re my anchor, Lou. You keep me grounded and since I’ve met you, I’ve changed. I’ve changed for better and I think getting an anchor above this,” he gestured to his other wrist where the phrase was, “would mean a lot to me.”

Louis’ blue eyes were shining softly and Harry could see that his boyfriend was processing what he had just told him.

“Every anchor needs a rope,” Louis said, firmly.

Harry smiled brightly at Louis, overjoyed at how they understood each other so easily and effortlessly.

“Yeah, I like that idea.” Harry leaned closer to Louis again to place a kiss on his cheek, trying not to make any sharp movement with his arm that was being tattooed.

“Me too. You’ll be the anchor and I’ll be the rope that brings you home.”

If Liam the tattoo artist weren’t holding one of Harry’s arm in place, he would’ve thrown both of them around Louis’ shoulders and kissed him passionately right there, but he had to settle for linking his fingers again with Louis’.

“We’re done,” Liam announced, finally turning the tattoo gun off and fetching the paper towel to clean Harry’s skin.

Harry inspected the still blurry and reddened fresh small drawing on his wrist. He didn’t have words to describe the happiness that filled him. “Thank you, it looks great.”

“Yeah, sick drawing, mate.” Louis got up from his stool, walking around Harry to look at the tattoo too.

“So, you’re next.” Liam took off his mask, his attention on Louis now. “What’s it gonna be? The quotation marks or the anchor/rope thing you were just talking about?”

Harry and Louis shared a look, smiling widely at each other. Harry could see the wrinkle by Louis’ eyes and how his whole face lit up with the soft glint in his blue irises. He would never get tired of staring at Louis and admiring what he was like.

“Another time. Today, it’s only the quotation marks,” Louis answered and Harry nodded, waiting for Liam to cover his wrist with the plastic wrap to protect the new tattoo, so he could get up and give his space on the chair for Louis.

“I love you,” Harry said as Louis stopped in front of him before sitting down.

He pecked on Harry’s lips briefly, scrunching up his nose a bit before he spoke. “I love you too, but we’re literally the definition of a walking cliche.”

“And I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Harry replied, taking Louis’ place on the stool and holding his hand, just like Louis had done to him.

Harry was sure that was the first of the many more times they’d be doing that and, honestly, he couldn’t wait for what life had in store for them. He wouldn’t trade what he and Louis had for anything, with or without luck, not now or ever.

Having a four-leaf clover on his arm, or Louis having the horseshoe, didn’t make them lucky, it was only a metaphor for the beginning of their story. What Harry had told Louis a year before still held truth – he was the luckiest for having Louis. Their future together would only prove that despite whatever force had brought them together, even as twisted as it was, it was their destiny and fate to find each other, to find a safe place in each other, to find themselves at home.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Happily :)
> 
> Thanks for reading!
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> [Tumblr post](http://perfectdagger.tumblr.com/post/182734819288/a-twist-of-fate-lucky-you-there-was-a-mocking) :)
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> Comments and kudos are always welcome! xx


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